


Cosmic Technicality

by Katiemonz



Series: Time Warp [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Fun, Gen, Short Stories, just some boys having good times together, no real plot, redeemed Scourge, sequel to Time Warp, technically more of a 1.5 sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-15 23:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 50,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11241486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katiemonz/pseuds/Katiemonz
Summary: A collection of short stories that take place after my story Time Warp! Sonic might've just saved the fabric of time and space, but that doesn't mean things have calmed down, especially now that he's friends with Scourge and Zonic. With three Sonics running around, there's never a dull moment. This'll take some time to get used to. Cross-posted on FFN.





	1. The Heroes' Dance

A few weeks after Mobius was saved from the wrath of the Time Eater, the President of the United Federation decided that the planet’s heroes should be honored, in a way that he felt was fun and unique. Unfortunately, the most interesting thing he could think of was to throw a huge gala in the three hedgehogs’ (and Tails’s) honor.

“Is he actually serious with this?” Sonic rolled his eyes as he glanced down at the details on the invitation. The President was an alright guy-- Sonic had met him a couple of times-- but the two didn’t always see eye to eye. This was one of those times. “I can still barely walk without crutches, and the man invites us to a party? Think I’ll pass.”

“Seriously,” Scourge scoffed. He was seated upside-down on their couch, so his feet hung off the top of the back. He glared at the slip of paper in his hand incredulously. “I don’t do fancy, and I don’t do rooms filled with pompous assholes. This kind of stuff doesn’t happen every time you guys save the world, right?” he asked, an eyeridge raised. “‘Cause if it does, I might have to reconsider this whole ‘good guy’ thing.”

“Well, it’s certainly the first time  _ I _ was invited to anything like this,” Zonic said, sounding bored. The Zone Cop was still in his home zone, and therefore hadn’t gotten a physical copy of the invite. He was mentioned on Sonic’s, Scourge’s, and Tails’ letters though, so they had called him up on Tails’ Miles Electric to discuss. “I mean, I’m honored-- he is the President of one of Mobius Prime’s leading nations and all-- but the man is aware I live in a different dimension, right? That’s just so awkward, too, being honored as a hero in a dimension that you’re not even from. I mean, technically speaking, Zone Cops aren’t supposed to personally interfere in the goings-on of a different Zone  _ at all,  _ much less be invited to a shindig by one of its world leaders.”

“I get what you mean,” Scourge frowned. “I was still in jail what, a month ago? And now I’m bein’ invited to kick it with the President? Now that’s awkward. Does this guy know  _ anything _ about us?”

“Maybe it could be fun,” Tails suggested, flipping the invite from back to front over and over again. “If anything, we could go, laugh at all the hoity-toities, eat some free gourmet food, give a 10-second speech, and then book it.”

The green hedgehog smirked. “Huh, not bad kid. I like the way you think.”

“Seems pretty rude though,” Zonic shook his head. “It’s the President, after all.”

“If the Prez knows one thing about me,” Sonic sat up and cracked his back, “it’s that I don’t like stayin’ in one spot for too long. Almost every time Tails and I get invited to one of these ceremonies, we stay for an hour, tops. It’s probably all he’s expecting, honestly. And besides, Z, like you said, you’re from a different dimension, so no one can blame you for leaving early. And Scourge has a… rebellious streak, to put it gently.” Scourge laughed at that. “There’s no way the guy can expect us to stay through the whole party.”

The others all mulled the idea around in their heads for a moment. If they didn’t have to stay at the gala for hours, maybe it wouldn’t be so terrible.

Zonic cleared his throat. “I suppose I could stop by for a few. Make a brief appearance. There’s a first time for everything.”

“I wouldn’t mind getting out of the house for a bit…” Sonic sighed. “Even if my legs are still in pretty rough shape, a change in scenery for a little bit couldn’t hurt.”

“And I’m down for nabbin’ all the fancy finger sandwiches and hogging all the fondue,” Scourge shrugged.

“I guess we’re all in agreement,” Tails said, checking the RSVP info on the invitation. “Extremely reluctant yesses all around.”

 

ooo

 

The evening of the party approached faster than any of them wanted it to. The four found themselves standing outside the gates of the President’s mansion, the sound of conversation wafting out through the windows. The guys were all dressed up in their Sunday best-- Sonic, Scourge, and Tails all in tuxes, Zonic in his black and gold dress uniform-- and had come all the way out to the nation’s capitol. There was no backing out now.

Sonic took a deep breath, leaned out on one crutch, and rang the doorbell next to the large gates.

The four were immediately rushed inside, and stuck right in the hustle and bustle of the gala. The party was… well, the President made an attempt. The lights were dim, and upbeat pop music was blasting through the speakers. There was a decent amount of space cleared away to serve as a dance floor, though very few people were on it. Nearly all of the guests were high-society types: politicians, celebrities, and other general rich folk. In other words, completely the wrong kind of crowd. Lasting for even an hour would be harder than the four heroes initially thought.

As soon as they stepped into the room, they were met with roaring applause. Sonic and Tails waved to the crowd, trying not to show how annoyed they were by the situation. Zonic simply seemed surprised by it all, not being used to this much attention. Scourge, who normally loved attention, seemed unhappy with this particular brand of it. Rich fancy people usually put him in a sour mood, and now he was stuck in a giant ballroom full of them.

The four were hit with questions from all sides as they tried to push through the room. What happened with the Time Eater? Were you scared? What was it like meeting your past selves? Not to mention countless questions about Zonic and Scourge. Who are you, where did you come from, what’s with the uniform, why do you look so much like Sonic? In fact, they got the last question so often, they just started responding, “We’re cousins,” which, when said in unison, got people to shut up pretty quickly.

After what felt like an eternity, Tails had led the group to an empty table in the back corner of the room. They had to fight tooth and nail to get through the crowd, Scourge and Zonic dragging Sonic along behind them. They pulled chairs out from around the table and immediately sat down in them, hoping and praying that they wouldn’t be bothered anymore.

“Jeez, this is worse than I thought,” Tails breathed, elbows resting on his knees.

“I swear, these people have no idea who Scourge and I even are,” Zonic huffed, crossing his arms. “They’re  _ honestly _ surprised we all look alike.”

“What did you expect?” Scourge rolled his eyes. “They’re a bunch of rich politicians and celebrities that have their heads so far up their own asses, they can chew their food again on the way down.”

“Time,” Sonic half-asked half-demanded of anyone who had a watch, as he massaged his sore legs with his hands. His crutches were leaned up against the table next to him, wrinkling the pristine white tablecloth.

Zonic groaned on his left. “We’ve been here twenty minutes,” he said, tucking his watch back under the cuff of his glove. A chorus of whines and moans ensued.

“How long we stayin’? An hour?” Scourge said, squirming uncomfortably in his tux. His eyes scanned the room until he found the buffet table across the dance floor. “... There’s champagne over there. I’m tempted to see how drunk I can get in forty minutes. Someone convince me otherwise.”

_ “Bad idea,” _ Sonic’s head whipped around to face him. “The  _ President _ is here, the last thing you need to do is get plastered. Plus, I ain’t carrying you home!”

“Hmm, I see your argument,” the Moebian nodded. “But consider this: I get to get drunk off expensive champagne  _ for free.” _

As if on cue, some lady in a gaudy dress approached the table. “Excuse me,” she said in a  _ very _ snooty tone, “the three of you all look  _ remarkably _ similar. Are you related, perchance?”

Judging from the expression on Scourge’s face, he’d had enough of this. “Alright, that decides it. I’m getting drunk. See you all in forty minutes,” he grunted before shoving off towards the buffet table. The woman, clearly offended, scoffed as she shuffled off to bother someone else.

“No, Scourge, wait--!” Sonic reached after him, but he was quickly gone. He sighed. “Aaand now we’ll have to babysit him. Great.”

Tails rose from his seat. “I’ll keep an eye on him,” he said tiredly. “Make sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble.”

“Godspeed, bro,” Sonic fistbumped him as he walked past, following Scourge to the other end of the room.

Tails hurried after the green hedgehog, who seemed to have his blinders on as he made a beeline for the buffet table. There were a number of champagne bottles and glasses at the end of a table, with a server manning them. Scourge promptly ignored the man behind the table, and grabbed an entire bottle for himself.

“Scourge,” Tails said, nudging him in the shoulder to get his attention. “Isn’t that champagne…”

“Meant for human consumption only? Yup,” Scourge nodded, popping the cork. “Whatever’ll get me drunker quicker. Plus the humans-only shit tastes better.”

“That stuff is made for someone twice your height!” the fox tisked, but Scourge ignored him as he took a swig out of the big bottle.

“La la la la I can’t hear you,” the hedgehog teased, starting to walk along the length of the table, eyeing all the different fancy foods as he went. “Lessee here, tiny sandwiches, lil’ shellfish thingies, cheese plate… caviar? Ugh, another reason to hate these fancy shindings,” he grumbled. “Yo T, if yer gonna keep followin’ me, at least make yerself useful and keep an eye out for where the fondue’s at, okay? I want me some of that.”

Tails rolled his eyes and shook his head, but nonetheless started to hover above the crowd in order to see further down the table. He spotted the elaborate fondue pots rather quickly, happily noticing there was both chocolate  _ and _ cheese fondue. Finally, something at this party he could get excited about. “Fondue, straight ahead!”

“Aw yeah man! Let’s get that ‘due!” Scourge exclaimed, as he started to push through the crowd.

“Gotta get that ‘due!” Tails cheered along, flying alongside him. This was going to be fun.

After the two fondue hunters had left the table, Zonic huffed tiredly. “And just like that, we’re down to two,” he said. He checked his watch again, seemingly annoyed that time wouldn’t pass faster. His elbows were tucked into his sides, and he slouched a little bit over the table. Very un-Zonic-like behavior, Sonic noticed.

“You alright, Z?” he asked, keeping his voice low. Well, low for this party, anyway. All the people talking over each other plus the music playing made it hard to hear.

“I’m not one for big, crowded parties,” the Zone Cop said, squirming in his seat. “Fancy or not. It just… takes a lot for me to have fun at these things, I guess.”

“Aw, what’s not to like? I mean, okay, this party tanks. Lame crowd, stuffy dress code,” Sonic said, lowering his voice even more so as not to offend anyone who overheard. “But big parties in general?”

Zonic shrugged. “Just don’t like ‘em, I guess. I prefer… smaller, quieter get-togethers.”

“Eh, whatever floats your boat, I guess. We’re not staying for too long, anyway. Think you can last another forty minutes?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Zonic smiled and raised an eyeridge. “I chase down interdimensional criminals as my day job. I can handle being a little uncomfortable for an hour.”

Sonic grinned. “Glad to hear it! At least the music’s half decent,” he observed as a bassy dance beat started to play. “Usually the music at these things is pretty snoozy. Looks like the Prez took notes from last time.”

“How bad was it last time?” the Zone Cop asked, cracking a smile.

Sonic gagged.  _ “Abysmal,”  _ he laughed. “The shindig was  _ right _ after we got home from saving the world from whatever it was, so we were exhausted. That, plus sleepy music, and the fact that we had to stay  _ the whole time? _ We were  _ miserable.  _ That’s why we’re leaving here after an hour, and the President can’t complain.”

“Oh, Chaos,” Zonic chuckled, the sound drowned out by the music. The DJ was turning the music up, apparently trying to get  _ anyone _ on the dance floor.

The speedster rolled his eyes. “Could this party be trying  _ any _ harder?”

“Please. If it weren’t for those crutches, you’d be dancing your heart out right now.”

“Oh really? I have half a mind to drag you out there with me and make  _ you _ dance.” Sonic gave him a mischievous look, and Zonic violently shook his head.

“Ooohhh no, no man, I don’t dance--”

“You’re  _ me, _ dude! How bad can you be? C’mon, this song’s not half bad,” the Prime Zoner said, pushing himself up out of his chair. He grabbed his crutches, but Zonic sat still. “Come on, come on! We’ve got forty minutes to kill, and I need you to spot me so I don’t fall down,” he smirked.

Zonic sighed, a small smile gracing his lips. “I hate you, you know that?” He climbed out of his chair, reluctantly walking with Sonic to the dance floor. Thankfully, the dance floor was empty, so Sonic was able to crutch over with no problems. Everyone else at the party was too busy talking and eating tiny finger foods and being snooty, so no one was paying attention to the identical blue hedgehogs.

Sonic started dancing, the movements awkward due to his weak legs. He quickly passed his crutches off to Zonic, insisting he could dance better without them. This, of course, didn’t work, and the cop had to let Sonic hold onto him so he didn’t topple over. They were effectively dancing together, though one of them was holding onto a pair of crutches, and the the other was limply flopping about in time to the music. It was a really good thing no one was watching. As the two laughed about their equally horrible attempts at dancing, Zonic thought he might actually be having fun at a big party for once.

It was a shame a huge hole got blasted through the side of one of the walls just then.

People were thrown to the floor, the music screeched to a halt, and rubble crashed down all around as a gigantic red and yellow robot floated in through the gaping hole. A bellowing, maniacal laughter fed through the bot’s speakers, flooding the ruined ballroom.

“Ohohohohohoho!” a familiar voice laughed, pounding in everyone’s ears. “I’m  _ baaack!” _

In typical Eggman fashion, the doctor had decided to literally crash the party, armed with a gaint scorpion-esque robot, with multiple legs, vicious pincers, and a sharp tail that swung about wildly. The gala guests all raced out of the room, screaming and knocking over chairs as they tripped over each other. The secret service jumped into action, swiftly getting the president to safety.

“About time,” Sonic grunted, slowly pushing himself up off the floor. He’d landed flat on his back, Zonic next to him. The blast had knocked his legs out from under him, and they were still shaking. He might not be in the best fighting shape, but he didn’t need to be. “I was wondering where you were, Egghead! Glad you could finally show your ugly mug.”

“Hmph. No thanks to you, you pesky rodent!  _ You _ left me in that endless white void after you defeated me last time!” Eggman shouted, pounding angrily on his control panel. In his narrow-minded rage, he barely noticed the Zone Cop.

“I knew I was forgetting  _ something,”  _ Sonic smirked. He was sitting up now, his legs screaming. Yeah, no way he could fight like this.

Scourge stumbled onto the scene, arriving on the debris-covered dance floor with an almost-empty bottle of champagne in one hand, an entire pot of cheese fondue in the other. “Hey, it’s Eggman!” He cheered, grinning wide as he held the fondue up in the air, as if that was a sort of greeting. His cheeks were a rosy pink, and given his demeanor, he definitely seemed drunk. Rather impressive given how little time he had to inebriate himself. “Haven’t seen you in a while. You still fat and ugly, man?”

“Scourge?!” Eggman’s voice exploded, furious and confused. “What are  _ you _ doing here?!”

“This is one-fourth my party, dude!” The green hedgehog held his arms out to the side, as if to say,  _ look at my kingdom. This ruined, deserted party was thrown partially in my honor. Suck it.  _ “Looks like someone didn’t get the memo.”

The doctor growled, his robot snapping its pincers menacingly. “Grrr...! No matter. This robot can  _ easily _ take on the two of you blasted hedgehogs!!”

“Just two? I’m offended,” Zonic said, pushing himself to his feet. He pulled a small laser pistol out of the coat of his dress uniform, turning off the safety. He could see Eggman’s expression drop like a rock from inside the cockpit. He tried to suppress the smirk forming on his lips, trying to be professional. “It appears we haven’t been formally introduced. Name’s Zonic, elite officer of the NZPD. Gotta say, I’ve always wanted to take one of your creations down. Looks fun.”

Eggman’s face was beet red, and it almost looked like he had steam coming out of his ears. His mouth was gaped wide open, no sound coming out. It didn’t look like he had a response for three Sonics at once.

“Did I miss it?” Tails asked excitedly as he flew over, landing next to the others. He smiled, happy to see he hadn’t missed the beat-down. He gave Sonic a hand getting to his feet, handing the hedgehog his crutches. “Everyone got out okay, and they’re all headed away from the mansion. As long as we keep this fight here, no one’s in danger.”

“Nice work, Tails,” Sonic nodded. He looked up at Eggman, who was currently flabbergasted. “So! I might not be in the best shape right now, but we’ve got Scourge, who’s essentially just as fast as I am, Zonic, one of the best Zone Cops in the multiverse, and Tails, who’s literally been helping me kick your butt since he was four. Maybe not your best time to attack, huh Doc?”

“That’s what you think! Now I have  _ three _ hedgehogs to crush into jelly!” the rotund scientist yelled back. His banter wasn’t at his best at the moment, as he was surprised by the other hedgehogs’ unexpected appearance and was grasping at straws. But it didn’t matter, witty banter was just the appetizer of any good battle. It was time for the main course. “ATTACK!!” Eggman screamed, his scorpion robot marching forward.

“You guys ready?” Sonic smiled, more than happy to let his friends handle most of the fighting this time around. He didn’t expect to be able to help much with his weakened legs, but there was no way he was going to sit this one out. No one responded verbally, all cracking their knuckles and getting ready for a fight. Scourge handed him the fondue pot, which was still filled with cheese, clearly not intending to fight with it. Sonic shrugged, deciding he would question the tipsy hedgehog’s logic at a later time, before gently placing the fondue pot down on the floor. “Alrighty then. Let’s beat this bucket of bolts!”

The battle lasted only several minutes. The robot was designed to handle  _ one _ Sonic, not three, plus Tails. Eggman escaped, as per usual, but no one felt particularly bummed about it. They were scratched up and bruised, and they would definitely be answering to the tuxedo rental place, but the quick fight had made it the best fancy party any of them had ever been to.


	2. Hello, Neighbor

Scourge sat on the roof of his apartment building, watching the summer sky turn different colors as the sun went down. As thanks for helping to save the multiverse, the government had gifted him with the keys to a brand new shiny apartment. He’d moved in about a week ago, finding the place small and completely unfurnished save for a bed and a couple other necessities. He guessed they assumed that he would bring more stuff with him when he moved in, but Scourge owned little more than the clothes on his back. A communicator from Tails, a toothbrush and other basic toiletries, the fondue pot he’d taken as a souvenir from the President’s mansion, and a CD that Sonic insisted he listen to, even though he had no way to play it. That was it. So even though his place wasn’t very big, the place felt empty, lonely, and oppressive. In other words, the exact opposite of the workshop, the place that had been his home since he left Zone Jail. And what reminded him of Zone Jail? His barren apartment. Joy.

Not terribly eager to spend large amounts of time in his new place, Scourge often found himself outside, exploring Station Square and getting a feel for his new surroundings. The city had suited his needs well enough: a long beach and lots of stretches of highway that were good for running, a bar a few blocks away where he could drink and play pool (he missed pool, he was pretty good at it but he hadn’t played in years), and a pizza place that had good garlic knots and free delivery. But didn’t feel welcome, since rumors about his ‘evil twin’ status had spread fast. People tended to give him wide berth as he walked down the sidewalk, causing him to feel alone in a city of hundreds of thousands.

He was used to having a team with him-- the Supression Squad, the Destructix, or nowadays, Sonic and his friends-- but for now, in terms of his living situation, he was on his own. Again, something that wouldn’t be so bad if his apartment wasn’t completely and utterly empty.

He supposed he could just go out and buy furniture. It wasn’t like he didn’t have money. He was given a decent amount by the government, and suffering from what was potentially PTSD definitely helped him weasel a few more mobiums out of them... but what would he even buy? What did most apartments usually have in them? If he was being honest with himself, he’d never lived in a normal house before. He’d lived everywhere from a fancy mansion to an abandoned warehouse, but nowhere that really suited him. He didn’t need a ton of things, since he was just living by himself and didn’t like staying cooped up inside for too long anyway. But with his apartment as empty as it was, it was just dreary, and not at all what a home should feel like. Or at least, what he thought a home should feel like. The closest thing he had to a home was the workshop, but that was just because he’d stayed there long enough and because his friends were there. How were you supposed to make a place feel like home with no one but yourself living there and nothing to fill up the empty space?

The answer to that question probably wasn’t “sit on the roof and watch the sunset and be moody about the whole thing”, but that’s what Scourge decided to do anyway.

It had been a hot day, but being high up on the roof, there was quite a bit of breeze, and it rustled his new leather jacket around and blew through his short quills. He could smell the ocean even from way up there, catching little whiffs of sea air intermingled with the scents of car exhaust and hot food cooking in carts on the street below. He dropped his sunglasses down over his eyes as he watched as the sun started to duck below the horizon, turning the clouds pink and orange. The warm sky mixed with the cool sea breeze felt oddly comforting. This was a view he could get used to.

The sounds of horns honking blared up from the street below as the sunset grew more intense. Scourge’s ear flicked at the noise. He still wasn’t quite used to living in the city, as he was more accustomed to living on the outskirts rather than right smack in the middle of the action. Station Square was alright, as cities went. Nice place, good food, good views of the ocean. Not that he particularly enjoyed the ocean, but he could still appreciate the sight. The water shone orange, the crests of the waves a bright white. Maybe he’d run on the beach later. He’d been running a lot, still trying to process that  _ this was his life now, _ and Emerald Coast seemed like a pretty good spot.

He heard the roof hatch open up as someone else climbed up. He swung his head around, catching a glimpse of pink. Oh, right, Amy Rose “coincidentally” lived in the same building as him. Joy. They lived on different floors, so they didn’t run into each other often, but it was still too often for Scourge’s liking.

Amy climbed out of the hatch, straightening her dress as she reached solid ground and stood up straight. The striking sunset caught her eye, followed immediately by the green hedgehog sitting only twenty feet away. Scourge tried to get a read on her expression. She was squinting because of the harsh light, but aside from that, she didn’t seem particularly put-off by his presence. Considering most of their previous encounters involved fighting, the green hedgehog remained wary.

Instead of summoning her hammer, like Scourge half-assumed she would, she walked over and sat down on the floor next to him, carefully folding her dress underneath her. “Hey, neighbor,” she said, taking note of the Moebian’s frustrated expression. “Whatcha up to? Brooding?”

Scourge scoffed. “I don’t  _ brood. _ Who do you think I am, Shadow?” he said, making Amy crack a smile. Her cheerful expression did nothing to un-sour his. “And it’s none of your business what I’m up to.”

“Hmph. I’m only trying to make conversation,” the girl crossed her arms over her chest.

“S’that why you came up here? To make conversation?”

“No, I didn’t know you were up here,” she pouted. “The weather’s been gorgeous today, and I wanted to watch the sunset. The roof’s the best vantage point.” Both hedgehogs turned their attention to the slowly setting sun, watching as the sky danced in warm colors. The clouds were all bright pink and yellow, practically glowing. It was late July, and it was evident in the hot weather. While they were cool up on the breezy rooftop, they could also see the heat rising up from the city, wobbling and distorting some of the view. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Scourge grunted. “I guess,” he said, frowning a bit. He wasn’t in the mood for talking, especially not with Amy, someone who he’d fought with numerous times in the past. Sure, they were on the same side now, but that didn’t mean they had to like each other. They hadn’t interacted much since Scourge turned hero, so he couldn’t quite gauge where they stood.

Amy, ignoring his curt answer, tried again to spark a conversation. “Y’know, there was a story on the news about you today. Apparently people are still really curious about the new Sonic-lookalike in town.”

Now  _ that,  _ Scourge couldn’t ignore. “Yeah? What’d they have to say about me?” He kind of doubted it was anything good, since people mostly knew him as ‘evil dimension Sonic.’ Not exactly a great reputation.

“Well, they had it from a ‘very reliable source’ that you come from alternate dimension where everyone is evil, happiness is outlawed, and it rains blood on a weekly basis. I’m not even exaggerating.”

The green hedgehog raised an eyeridge, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Holy shit,” he said, shaking his head lightly. “So is that why the old lady a few doors down from me keeps givin’ me the stink-eye? She thinks I’m gonna make it rain blood?”

Amy laughed, smiling. “I wouldn’t be surprised. People will believe  _ anything  _ they hear on tv.”

“Seriously. What news station was this? Because I have half a mind to go over there and give ‘em a crash course in Moebian history. Frankly, I’m insulted. If they’d done their research, they’d know that happiness is punishable by  _ death, _ and that the blood rain happens  _ bi- _ weekly.”

“Oh yes, naturally,” Amy joked. “It’s not fair that they’re painting you in such a bad light, though. I mean, Sonic trusts you, why shouldn’t everyone else?”

“Uh, I dunno if that’s how trust works… Hey, is that why you haven’t tried to knock me into next week yet? ‘Cause I’m on Sonic’s good side?”

“Hey, I’m giving you a chance, mister.” She shot him a look, primarily light-hearted but with a serious fire in her eyes. She flexed her swinging arm. “Don’t give me a reason to use this, because I won’t hesitate. There’ll be a Scourge-shaped dent in the pavement by the time I’m done with you.”

“Alright, alright,” the green hedgehog said, holding his hands up in surrender. “Just… tryin’ to make conversation.”

Amy giggled. “Oh, how the tables have turned,” she said, placing her hands back in her lap. “But that’s not the only reason I’m being polite, you know. We went from living in different dimensions to living in the same apartment building. Whether we like it or not, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other. We should at least try and be friendly.”

“I don’t do friendly, Pinky.”

“Civil, then.”

Scourge humphed in reluctant agreement. As much as he still kind of wanted to pick a fight with Amy, the arrangement was fine by him: one less person who would act like a jerk to him was something he could live with. A lot of people, as soon as they saw him and realized he wasn’t Sonic, had shied away from him, both in the building and around town. Sure, he had an… abrasive personality, to put it lightly, but these people weren’t even giving him a chance. What, had  _ everyone _ seen that news report? He sniffed. “While you’re at it, mind tellin’ everyone else in this damn city to try bein’ civil, too? People been treatin’ me like I got the freakin’ plague or somethin’.”

Amy frowned. “Really?” she said, her green eyes looking out over the city. “That’s unusual… the people around here are usually friendly enough, especially to people who are friends with Sonic.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the thing, ain’t it? I ain’t  _ just _ Sonic’s friend. I’m his  _ evil twin, _ too.”

“I wouldn’t say evil,” the girl shrugged. “At least, not anymore. You saved the world! Lots of worlds, from what I understand.”

“Yeah, but… I dunno. It was never about saving people for me, it was about kicking ass and making sure the multiverse didn’t get destroyed, just because I didn’t want to get killed in the process. I saved the day for pretty fuckin’ selfish reasons.” He looked down at the ground, his brow tense as he shook his head. “I still dunno if I’m cut out for this whole good guy biz.”

“Y’know what I think?” Amy said, standing up and smoothing out her dress. “The fact that you’re worrying about whether you can be a good guy, and what people think of you… it shows you care. And if you care, I think you’re already on the right track.”

Scourge stared up at her, wide-eyed, like something had just clicked. This  _ was _ something he spent a lot of time thinking about, wasn’t it? He could still barely believe that he’d wound up a sort of hero, since he didn’t think it was something he’d ever be able to do. He didn’t think he was cut out for this, but he  _ wanted _ to be. This was the life he’d chosen for himself, and he wanted to make it worthwhile. He said nothing, but dropped his gaze as Amy walked towards the edge of the roof. She rested her arms on the wall that went around the edge, coming up to her chest.

“Hey,” she nodded over to him. “Come over here, the sun’s about to go all the way down. The ocean looks fantastic.”

“In my opinion, oceans are never fantastic,” the green hedgehog grumbled, but ultimately got to his feet. He stepped over to the edge, leaning up against the wall.

“Something else you have in common with Sonic,” the girl hummed. She watched as the sun dipped below the ocean, painting everything a deep red.

Scourge ran a finger through his short, choppy quills, casually wondering if they’d ever grow back. “Yeah, we got a lotta shit in common. Which is fuckin’ weird, since my world is supposed to be the  _ opposite _ of yours. I’m a jerk, but Sonic and I are  _ way _ too similar to be opposites. And this was even before we were on the same side.”

“Huh. Yeah, that’s true…. You’re both fast, hate water, you used to be blue… Your personalities aren’t even on opposite ends of the spectrum, are they? I mean, if you can put personalities  _ on _ a spectrum.”

He shrugged. Differences between alternate dimension Sonics was a conversation he’d expect to have with Z, not with Amy Rose on top of a roof, watching the sunset. Near the horizon, the sky was still brilliantly vibrant, though the other parts of the sky were starting to darken and dim. Lights all around the city began to flick on, the ones on the street having been turned on a while ago. It was a pretty good view, since the apartment building was nice and tall. The whole city was lighting up.

“Kind of wish we were in Mystic Ruins right now,” Amy hummed to herself. “You can see the city skyline really well from there. I bet it looks fantastic right about now. It’s hard to tell when you’re right in the middle of it.”

“Yeah… Guess I never thought of it like that. I grew up outside a major city, so I saw the skyline all the time. Got a good view of all the lights at nighttime. It’s different to be inside it, lookin’ out.”

“Jeez, what kind of house did you have where you could see the city that easily?” Amy smiled, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

“A rich, fancy one. I hated it,” Scourge said, refusing to delve any deeper into what his childhood home was like. “Huh. Maybe that’s why my apartment’s only got like, three pieces of furniture inside,” he said with a smirk. “Gotta keep the place as un-fancy as possible.”

“You’re exaggerating, right?” Amy asked, not sure if she believed him. “You’ve gotta have more than just three things.”

“Uh… bed, folding chair, table. Three,” the Moebian counted off on his fingers.

The girl’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding. How empty is your place?! What if you have company over?”

Scourge smirked. “Not a problem, my bed’s a king size. Plenty of room.”

_ “That’s not the kind of company I meant,”  _ Amy glared at him.

He laughed, a rare happy sound. “Ha, I’m just bustin’ yer chops,” he snorted, crossing his arms over the short wall on the roof’s edge. He rested his head in his arms, still smiling. “But yeah, my joint’s pretty empty. Why do ya think I’m hangin’ out up here?”

“Y’know, there  _ is _ a way to make your apartment feel less empty.”

“Yeah? Is it… get more furniture?”

“Yes. And I’m willing to help you. House shopping is a lot harder than you’d think,” she nodded as Scourge looked at her in disbelief. “I’m guessing you don’t have much for your kitchen, and you’re going to need  _ something _ because trust me, you’ll need to cook at some point. Not to mention all sorts of cleaning supplies, stuff for your bathroom, living room, bedroom… I mean, there’s living minimalistically, and then there’s living with  _ nothing.  _ One is definitely better than the other.”

“Um,” the green hedgehog said, causing her to pause. “I don’t remember hiring you as my interior designer.”

Amy’s eyes lit up, like he just said the magic words. “Can I be though? I haven’t had anything to do since the whole Time Eater fiasco, I promise I won’t make your place won’t look too fancy or flashy or anything--”

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Scourge interrupted her, standing up straighter. “I don’t need someone to help me pick out shit. I’ll spruce up my place how I see fit,” he grumbled, narrowing his eyes. Amy laced her fingers together and looked up at him, practically pleading. “Ugh… but if you’re that desperate for something to do… I  _ guess _ you can come with me to the furniture store. If I tell myself that I’ll go alone, it’ll never get done anyway…”

“Woooo!” Amy cheered, pumping her fist in the air. “Oh my gosh, this is gonna be  _ so much fun, _ we’re really gonna make your place feel like a home!”

“Heh, yeah… never really had one of those before,” he said, lowering his voice a bit. “Never had a normal life in general. Don’t really know what to do with myself now.”

“Well… let’s just take it one step at a time, okay?” the pink one smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Living on Mobius might take some time for you to get used to, and yeah, it can get kind of boring when you’re so used to fighting… That’s one of the reasons I like being with Sonic so much. There’s never a dull moment with him.”

Scourge barked out a laugh, shrugging her hand off of him. “Tell me about it.”

“I would, but we’d be here all night,” Amy giggled. “How ‘bout tomorrow? We’ll go shopping and swap stories?”

The moebian hesitated, but eventually agreed. “Yeah, alright.”

“Cool.” She turned, walking away from the side of the roof and heading towards the hatch that lead back downstairs. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

The green one grunted, lazily waving a hand at her. The girl disappeared back into the building, and his eyes drifted back to the darkening city.  He took a deep breath, in through his nose and out through his mouth. Well, hanging out with Amy wasn’t something he expected to be doing. It would probably be good for him… and for his apartment. Chaos knows that place was in need of a makeover. Amy seemed to have a good grasp on what kind of things he’d need. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

He couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. Chaos, he was  _ really _ not used to this. “First time for everything,” he muttered, content to stay outside and watch the lights of the city a little bit longer. Station Square didn’t feel like home yet, but these things took time. That was one concept he was all too familiar with. But he and Amy becoming friends… that would definitely speed up the process, he had a feeling.

The sun was gone from view, the edge of the horizon still a bright yellow orange from the light wrapping around the globe. In the opposite direction though, the sky was a dark blue, the moon fully visible. Scourge made a confused face as he noticed that a good portion of the moon seemed to be  _ gone,  _ something he’d have to ask Sonic and Tails about later. Maybe Amy would know.  _ ‘For being the Prime Zone, Mobius is a weird-ass place,’ _ he thought, amused. He could get used to living in a place like this.


	3. Visit to Angel Island

Angel Island was quiet and peaceful, as usual. The island floated above the sea, the sun poking out every so often from behind the clouds. Waves of fog rolled across the different zones of the island, and in addition to the summer heat, the whole place felt rather muggy. Luckily, the island was in motion, so there was a nice breeze by the Master Emerald shrine, where Knuckles lay.

He had just started picking at a bowl of grapes when he realized that something wasn’t right. Knuckles got a sudden feeling that there was a foreign presence on the island, on  _ his  _ island. It wasn’t Sonic or Tails, as he would’ve heard the Tornado’s engine if they had decided to fly up for a visit. No, this was someone different, trespassing on his island, and potentially putting the Master Emerald in danger.

He got to his feet and rolled his shoulders, loosening them up. It was time to welcome his new visitor.

Ooo

Zonic climbed out of his portal, emerging sideways but touching down on the soft grass as his spatial stabilizer kicked in. The Zone Cop was tired. He’d just finished sparring practice, still wearing his tight-fitting black t-shirt and sweatpants. He’d been plenty busy as usual. The rip in spacetime that he, Sonic, and the others had repaired had apparently also weakened the barriers between zones. There had been a few incidents already of people accidentally zone-hopping, but most of the issues came from Doctor Nega. The arch enemy of the Zone Cops had taken the opportunity to wreak havoc on the cosmic highway, and his agents were everywhere making trouble.

Once Zonic’s one-week vacation he’d earned for saving the multiverse was over, he was right back to working harder than ever, with no idea when he would have a little time off. Hence, why he’d decided to visit Angel Island  _ now,  _ without giving Knuckles any prior warning. Zonic himself hadn’t expected to have the rest of the day off, after all.

The portal closed behind him, and he took a second to get used to the grass under his feet. No Zone had plantlife, of course, but not an abundance of it, and especially not in the cities. Zonic didn’t get to experience this much green very often. Grass, trees, ferns, bushes, ivy, flowers… As first impressions generally went, Angel Island was looking pretty good in his book.

And then he got tackled.

Zonic was hit from behind, and he tumbled face-first into the grass he’d been enjoying a second ago. He instantly regretted leaving his pistol at home as his assailant pinned him to the ground.

“What the hell?” uttered the gruff voice that was currently on top of him. Zonic turned his head around, catching a glimpse of the angry, red echidna who had his knees digging into the cop’s shoulders.

“Knuckles Prime!” Zonic gasped.

Knuckles scowled. “You’re not Sonic. Who the hell are you? What do you think you’re doing on my island?!”

“I’m Zonic! The Zone Cop! We’ve met, don’t you remember?” the hedgehog blurted out, feeling frustrated. He knew he didn’t have the most unique face around, but he didn’t think he was  _ that _ forgettable. Then again, he’d only talked to Knuckles once, about a month ago. But still, he was an elite cop from another dimension!

The echidna grunted, seemingly just now having remembered their encounter. “Oh yeah,” he said, climbing off of Zonic’s back. “Kind of blocked that day out of my memory. Four Sonics at once isn’t the most pleasant experience.” He didn’t help the Zone Cop stand back up, still eyeing him warily. Zonic’s movements and mannerisms were much different, much more reserved than Sonic’s, and it weirded Knuckles out a little bit. He crossed his arms. “So what brings you to my island,  _ officer?” _

Zonic pulled himself to his feet, dusting himself off. He suspected he had a small grass stain on his face, but he left it alone. “We agreed to have a talk about Chaos energy, and… for lack of a better term, what’s wrong with the energy inside me. I’d wanted to drop by sooner to chat about it, but I just never really had the time. Sorry for… kind of barging in unannounced.”

He had expected for his apology to be accepted, but Knuckles merely puffed air through his nose. “Yeah, don’t do this again,” he said with a slight glare. “Next time you wanna drop in, call ahead.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the officer nodded.  _ ‘Note to self: Knuckles Prime hits first, asks questions later.’ _

“C’mon,” the echidna said, tilting his head back in the direction he came from. “We can talk back at the Master Emerald shrine. Maybe we can figure out what’s quote-unquote wrong with you.”

Knuckles and Zonic walked back to the Master Emerald in relative silence; one of them wary and suspicious, the other gaping in wonder at getting to see Angel Island up close and personal. So few people have been on the island over the years, Zonic realised as he smiled.  _ ‘I must be the first person from another dimension to-- nope. Scourge was here first. Dammit! Duh, he tried to hijack the Master Emerald to go Super a few years ago. Okay. I’m the first person from No Zone to ever set foot here though, so that’s still cool.’ _ Birds chirped all around, and as they trekked through the bushes and the fog, sounds of gently flowing water rang out. A warm breeze rustled all the plants, rolling the fog along the ground. Zonic tried to take it all in at once, forest-green eyes looking every which way.

“This is beautiful up here…” he muttered aloud, barely paying attention to what came out of his own mouth. He hadn’t realized he’d even spoken until Knuckles replied.

“Thanks. I try to keep it looking nice… for visitors,” he smirked, pushing aside a tree branch that was in his path.

Hearing Knuckles’s voice snapped Zonic’s attention back to him, and the hedgehog ducked below the branch.  _ ‘I guess he’s not that mad at me for barging in, then…? If he’s joking about it…’ _ The No-Zoner really didn’t want to be on the echidna’s bad side. Not only was Knuckles one of Sonic’s friends, but he was also one of the most knowledgeable Chaos users on the planet. No one in No Zone knew as much as he did about Chaos-- hell, it was likely that few people on Mobius Prime knew as much as he did. If Knuckles couldn’t teach him about Chaos or figure out why exactly he couldn’t use his powers anymore, then no one could.

After a little bit of walking, the foliage parted to reveal the Master Emerald shrine, rising up like a pyramid from the green landscape. There was a wide clearing of grass all around it, and a shallow pool of water all around the shrine, like a moat. It was clearly in a state of disrepair, just judging from how old it was. Where there had once been a roof to the shrine, there were only semi-intact pillars remaining. Ivy crawled all over the structure, and it was probably holding parts of it together. The mist danced along the ground, puffing out of the way as the echidna and hedgehog walked through it.

Probably the most impressive sight was the Master Emerald itself, glowing bright from atop the shrine. Zonic had been near it before, during the final fight against the Time Eater, but all the fighting had taken place in an underground chamber beneath the shrine. Only Sonic had seen the Master Emerald that day, so it was a completely new sight to the Zone Cop. The main thing Zonic noticed was the lack of energy he felt. He was sure this place was positively exploding with Chaos energy, but he couldn’t feel a thing. He knew there was a reason for it, but it still made him feel sort of empty inside. But hopefully this emptiness was something that could be fixed.

“So, Mr. Zone Cop,” Knuckles said, one foot on the first step leading up to the shrine. “What do you wanna know? The basic low-down on how Chaos Energy works, or…?”

“Um,” Zonic said, snapping back to reality again. “I learned the basic gist of how it all works from Sonic, I’m sure he glossed over plenty of things, but… I think I wanna figure out what’s going on with the energy inside of me first. Because last time we met, you said it was… weird.”

“It  _ is _ weird, I can feel it from here,” the echidna furrowed his brow. The two started to walk up the steps, heading towards the Master Emerald. “You said you couldn’t run anymore or something like that, right?”

“Yeah. When I was thirteen, I… well, long story short, I got hit with a laser blast that was meant to take my speed away. It did, but I think it did something with my energy, too. I never noticed anything other than my speed being gone, but when I was here helping Sonic with the Time Eater, the Time Eater actually de-aged me, so I was thirteen almost the whole time I was here on Mobius…” Zonic paused when Knuckles gave him an incredulous look. “No, really. I was thirteen, it sucked. But I had my speed back, and I could sense the Emeralds when I wasn’t able to otherwise. If I hadn’t been a kid again, I don’t think I would’ve been able to go Super to fight that thing.”

“And then when you turned back to normal, that all went away, I’m guessing.”

“Yeah. Speed, sensing the Emeralds, healing powers… all gone.”

Knuckles stopped dead in his tracks, only a few steps away from the top of the structure. “Healing powers?” he asked, unsure if he believed what he heard. Zonic nodded. “But… Sonic can’t even heal. He’s tried, he can’t accelerate healing more than the Emeralds already do on their own. So how…”

“I have no idea. I was hoping you could tell me,” Zonic said with a shrug, climbing the last few stairs. The Master Emerald caught his eye again, filling him with a sort of longing. He tended to feel like this often when he was on Mobius Prime. It was a beautiful world, while his was a concrete warzone. He wanted to help No Zone become a great place again, but when it came to the Emeralds… his world didn’t have them, and never would. These were  _ special, _ and he could only wish that he could feel their warmth again sometime soon.

Knuckles hummed, a hand on his chin. “I don’t know. All this ‘alternate dimension’ crap is new to me. I mean, I understand it, but it’s still not something you see every day. I’m still not used to Scourge,” he said, eliciting a chuckle from Zonic. “But everyone who’s Chaos Touched has different abilities. Sonic’s fast, I’m strong, Amy can summon hammers out of thin air, yadda yadda yadda. Some people are more in-tune with Chaos than others, which is why Sonic can turn Super and most others can’t. It would make sense if all of the different dimension Sonics all had the same powers, and the same connection to Chaos. But…”

“But I’m different,” Zonic huffed, hands on his hips. “I don’t get it either. I mean, by definition, there are Sonics who exist who’ve never had powers at all. The multiverse is infinitely large, so that’s a given. But of all the ones that  _ do _ have his speed… I’ve never heard of any of them being able to heal. I don’t get it.”

Knuckles nodded slowly, deep in thought. “Seems like we’ve got a mystery on our hands,” he said. “Consider my interest piqued. I’ve never met a healer before. Apparently, a long time ago, back before echidna society had collapsed… people who were Chaos Touched were much more common. Most of them were fighters, like Sonic and I are, but a couple were healers. Ancient manuscripts aren’t the most descriptive or easy to understand things in the world, but I think healers would often have additional powers, like fighters’ abilities, but usually dialed back a bit.”

“Wow…” the Zone Cop said, his voice hushed. He found himself pressing his hand into his thigh, his fingers searching for the scars on his leg. Listening to Knuckles talk about this felt strange. Zonic was apparently the first healer in a long time, and he was from a different dimension. He felt the same awkwardness that he felt when he’d been invited to a party by the president of the United Federation: he felt more involved and attached to Mobius Prime than he probably should.

“My best guess,” the guardian said, “is that it has something to do with the soul? Again, I have no idea how alternate dimension stuff works, but I’m assuming you all have different souls. You all act like you do, anyway. Similar enough that you and Sonic and Scourge all have the same speed capabilities, but different enough that one of you can heal.” He sat down a few stairs from the top of the shrine with a huff, giving Zonic a frustrated look. “You,” he said, pointing a finger at him, “create a  _ lot _ of questions about how all this works.”

“Sorry,” the hedgehog said meekly, even though he knew it wasn’t his fault. Dimensional twins made everything more complicated, after all. He tentatively sat down next to Knuckles, sitting up straight and placing his hands in his lap.

Knuckles made a motion that would have looked like a shrug, if he wasn’t lying back and his arms weren’t up and tucked behind his head. “Hey, it’s not your fault,” he said. His voice was on the reassuring side, though his brow was still creased with thought. “Still, healing though… That’s a hell of a skill. Sucks that you don’t have it anymore, must’ve been handy. I’d love the opportunity to see something like that up close.”

“Yeah, I’d love to have that back. Chaos knows it’d be helpful in my line of work,” Zonic sighed quietly, the sound somewhat hollow. “All I have now is the scars leftover from my one and only healing attempt.”

“Really?” Knuckles sat up a little, one eyeridge raised.

Zonic rolled up the leg of his sweatpants, revealing the three long scars that cut into his thigh. “I got sliced up in a cave-in,” he explained as the echidna leaned in for a closer look. “I was bleeding pretty bad, so I tried healing it on a whim, and it worked.”

“Huh. I’m impressed. I’d say not bad for your first time, but… I really have no idea what ‘master healing’ looks like,” Knuckles smirked. “Looks like it got the job done, though. How many Emeralds did you have on hand?”

“Two.”

“Damn,” he nodded. “For being so much like Sonic, you sure are full of surprises…”

Zonic fidgeted, tangling his fingers together. He never felt particularly comfortable being compared to Sonic Prime; he never felt deserving of that kind of praise. He had to take a moment to remind himself that Knuckles had meant the statement as a compliment, and that he just had a bad habit of overthinking things. “Yeah, I guess I am,” he eventually said.

Knuckles, not noticing his apprehension, continued. “Especially because your energy feels so  _ different _ from his. Seriously, what is that? Because I keep sensing it and it keeps weirding me out.” He sat up straighter and closed his eyes, his head tilted down slightly. “You still have plenty of energy inside of you, so whatever laser blast thing you got shot with didn’t take it away,” he said, scrunching up his nose. He placed a hand on Zonic’s chest, not even thinking to ask first. Respecting personal space wasn’t one of his priorities.

The cop’s body was full of Chaos energy, just like his counterpart’s. The main difference was, while Sonic had energy flowing through him like a river, Zonic’s was more like a stagnant pond. His energy barely moved, if it moved at all. It was still, quiet,  _ dormant. _ It felt awkward to Knuckles’s highly-tuned senses. The No Zoner’s energy was thick and heavy like syrup, and just as difficult to trudge through. Knuckles pulled his hand away, shuddering slightly.

“...So?” Zonic wondered, the echidna’s expression not doing anything to encourage him.

“It almost feels like…” Knuckles frowned, trying to come up with a way to describe it. “It’s like your energy’s all blocked up, like there’s a dam in there keeping it from flowing steadily. It’s not  _ flowing, _ it’s just… there.”

“I take it it’s gotta be flowing for it to work?”

“Pretty much. Whoever tried to take your speed away didn’t remove any Chaos energy from your body, I’m guessing. They just turned it off. You know, so to speak.”

“So… if we turn it back on, get my Chaos mojo flowing again, we undam that river… You think I could get my speed back? And everything else?”

“I think. I’ve never seen anything like this before, I don’t know anything for sure.” He hummed, his lips forming a line. “Looks like I’ll be doing some research… gotta dive back into those manuscripts. See if anything like this has ever happened…”

Zonic sat on his hands. “Um, if it’s going to be a burden, you don’t have to help me if you don’t want to--”

“You kidding?” Knuckles smirked, a spark in his eyes. “I don’t mind. Chaos stuff is my element. I live and breathe this stuff, and there hasn’t been anything new about it since Shadow introduced everyone to the idea of Chaos Control. I don’t mind doing a little research.”

“Really? You’re not too busy or anything?”

“Too busy? I guard a giant rock that just sits still all day. It’s an important job, but 90% of the time, I’m just sitting around.” The echidna stood up and stretched his back, grunting as it cracked. “For someone who decided to barge in on my island, you sure tread lightly. You’re a cop, I thought you’d be more assertive.”

“Well, this is a personal favor. I’m not on duty right now,” Zonic said, hunching up his shoulders. “Besides, you’re a Prime Zoner,  _ and _ the guardian of the Master Emerald. I don’t want you to waste your time on me if you don’t want to.”

Knuckles rolled his eyes. “Kid, I don’t even know what being from the ‘Prime Zone’  _ means. _ And I don’t care to know. You’re not wasting my time, promise.” He saw the Zone Cop smile a little bit at the reassuring statement. He leaned back against one of the cracked pillars by the stairs. “Besides, you know how hard it is to find someone willing to listen to me talk about Chaos theory, and the history behind all of it? Sonic can’t sit still for more than ten seconds, and Tails is more interested in how this stuff can be applied to his machines.”

The Zone Cop smiled wider, feeling a little more confident now. “Well, if you ever need a sounding board, I’d be more than happy to listen. My world doesn’t have Chaos Emeralds of its own, after all. I’ve always thought they were pretty cool.”

“No Emeralds, huh…? But you still had powers… Your world must be an interesting place,” Knuckles thought aloud. He glanced over to the Master Emerald, wondering just how a world could function without it. Zonic’s world clearly had to have Chaos energy of  _ some _ kind, but no Emeralds? For the guardian, who’d grown up around the Master Emerald, it was a hard concept to swallow.

Zonic sighed. “Yeah, No Zone certainly is something.” He looked out over the island, having a great vantage point from the top of the shrine. There was greenery as far as the eye could see, the tops of mountains visible in the distance. Fog tumbled along the ground, flowing effortlessly between the trunks of the forest. The water lapping at the base of the shrine was rhythmic, almost like a kind of music. The sun kept trying to break out from behind the gray clouds in the sky, peeking through every now and again and shining light on sections of the distant forest canopy. In the back of his mind, Zonic wished his home could be more like this place. Sure, he was a city boy through and through, but he had a soft spot for nature. He’d been to Zones all over the multiverse, some with flora and fauna unimaginable. But as often as he saw it, he was always amazed by a good view. He wished he could bottle some of this world up and take it back to No Zone with him.

Knuckles looked at the hedgehog staring stiffly into the distance and shook his head.  _ ‘What a weird guy,’ _ he thought, amused. He stepped next to the Master Emerald, placing a hand on its surface. He was beginning to more clearly remember their first meeting, in Sonic’s hospital room shortly after the Time Eater was defeated and the world returned to normal. Zonic had seemed polite, vaguely star-struck at meeting him, and brushed off the fact that he lost his speed like it was no big deal. The Zone Cop was potentially even more different from Sonic than Scourge was. Content to sit still and listen, polite, not very talkative… not to mention, lacking the ego and even some of the self-esteem that Sonic had. Seeing someone who looked so much like Sonic act so reserved was pretty strange. But from what the echidna had heard, the two hedgehogs had the same innate desire to help people, the same stubbornness, and from what he was seeing right now, apparently the same love of nature.

“It’s a pretty good view, huh?” the echidna said, absentmindedly inspecting the Master Emerald for imperfections as Zonic continued looking out at Angel Island. “You got any sights like this in your world?”

Zonic hugged one of his arms across his body, gripping his opposite elbow. “Not really,” he said, only turning his head slightly. “No Zone is full of cities, just concrete and brick. Not even a lot of parks. I usually only get fresh air like this while I’m on a mission, and then I barely get to enjoy it. S’probably why I like coming to Mobius Prime so much. There’s still a lot of nature to enjoy.” He smiled, his eyes at half mast. “But still… despite how gloomy No Zone can feel sometimes, it’s still my home. I love it, I love living in Zone City. You can get all different kinds of food-- not just from all over the world, but all over the  _ multiverse--  _ and there’s so many different sorts of people, and so many things to do, and there’s always something going on. My world’s at war, but there’s still people playing music on the street corners, able to find a little bit of happiness, y’know? It’s still a good city.”

“I’m not really a city guy myself. I like my island,” Knuckles sniffed, leaning gently on the Master Emerald. “Exploring the world can be a nice change of pace from time to time, though. Your world sounds interesting.”

The No Zoner chuckled. “I hear that. You can’t really have a world that’s turned completely on its side, and have it be normal.”

The echidna screwed up his face in confusion, smirking. “Say what now?”

Zonic, deciding that showing would be easier than telling, stood up and removed the spatial stabilizer from his wrist. Without the silver bracelet there, he was forcefully turned ninety degrees until he was standing sideways in mid-air. “Ta-da,” he said, holding his arms out to the side for a little bit of flair.

_ “Damn!”  _ Knuckles barked out a laugh, crossing his arms over his chest. “You really  _ are _ something else. Any other surprises I should know about?”

“Nothing that immediately comes to mind.”

The guardian nodded, taking a few steps towards him and holding out his fist. “You’re alright, Zonic.”

The No Zoner beamed, bumping Knuckles’s fist with his own. “Thanks, glad to hear it. You’re a cool guy too, Knuckles Prime.”

“Just Knuckles will do,” he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He picked up the bowl of grapes he’d abandoned earlier, popping one into his mouth. “Wanna come check out where I keep all the ancient echidnan scrolls and books and stuff? Might as well get a leg up on that research.”

“Sure!” Zonic said, popping his stabilizer back on and dropping back down to the ground.

“Good, because like hell I’d leave  _ anyone _ alone here with the Master Emerald. C’mon, it’s down this way,” the red one said, bringing his grapes with him as he climbed down the stairs of the shrine. Zonic eagerly followed, still rather starstruck and happily surprised that Knuckles had warmed up to him. He already knew more than he had before he’d arrived on the island-- that the energy inside him was blocked and therefore he couldn’t use it-- and he could only hope that there were more answers in store. And even if there weren’t, he couldn’t object to spending some more time on Angel Island. After spending weeks in the station or fighting on the crumbling cosmic highway, he could use a change of scenery.


	4. Collapse

Sonic groaned miserably as he laid on the ground, about ten feet away from the workshop’s front door. This was his punishment for not listening to Tails. His legs were still severely weakened, even after resting for a week. The hedgehog, impatient as ever, had decided to try walking around outside on the shaky limbs, determined to get moving again. He did this against Tails’s wishes, while Tails wasn’t even home, and without taking so much as a crutch outside with him. When he inevitably fell down and found himself unable to stand back up, he had only himself to blame. His legs had suddenly and completely given out, and he was unable to even get on his knees and crawl. So he flipped himself onto his back and laid down in the soft grass, moaning in pain and annoyance.

He supposed he could drag himself back into the workshop, just using his arms, but he was feeling both lazy and dramatic that day, so he decided to stay put until Tails came home to see the sorry mess his older brother had become.

He sighed, his charcoal black eyes blinking away the harsh summer sunlight. “Oh, woe is me,” he complained to himself quietly. He did actually hate this situation. Because of the time energy that had infected his system, running had gotten harder and harder until he just couldn’t do it anymore. He had assumed that the time energy leaving his body would leave him back in his normal, healthy state, but alas, it was not meant to be. He’d used up too much of his strength when he went Hyper to fight the Time Eater and save the multiverse, and now his body had to take its sweet time recharging.

He hadn’t been able to run in about two weeks, and it was really starting to get to him.

He needed to get out of the workshop, out of the Mystic Ruins. As much as he loved Tails, and as much as he loved spending time with his newfound dimensional pals, he needed to run. To move, to feel the wind whipping through his quills and his feet pounding against the earth. He needed to go somewhere without being checked up on and  _ supervised.  _ That was probably why he decided to pull this stunt while Tails wasn’t around. Sheer stubbornness. “They always said my stubbornness would be the death of me,” Sonic sighed, feigning sadness. “It looks like they were right. Oh, now I shall meet my untimely end out here… in the wilderness, miles, nay, maybe even  _ feet _ from home…!”

“What are you doing?” Tails said from behind him. He had just climbed to the top of the plateau, bag of groceries in one hand, and the other hand on his hip. “I thought I told you not to try and walk yet, you dingus.”

“Tails! My savior hath returned!” the hedgehog dramatically gasped. Tails gently kicked him. “Zounds!! You would even kick thine own brother whilst he lies prone on the cold, hard ground?”

“I was going to help you up,” the fox said, heavily resisting the urge to face-palm, “but then you said ‘zounds.’ Now you can stay down there.” He shifted the bag of groceries so he held it with both hands, before stepping right over Sonic and walking towards the front door.

“You can’t do this! You can’t just leave me to die out here!!” Sonic yelled, feebly reaching an arm out towards him.

“Really? I can’t? That’s weird, because… here I go… leaving you…” Tails said, opening the front door and pushing inside. “Wow, I can’t believe it…”

“TAILS!! GET BACK HERE, I NEED YOU!!” Sonic screeched, his voice cracking as Tails closed the door behind him. “Mister, if you don’t get your fluffy butt back out here right now, I’ll… I’ll ground you! I’ll do it!!” His shouts fell on deaf ears, as he got no response from his little bro. “...Tails?” he asked again. No answer. He sighed, his outstretched arm flopping back down on the grass. He knew Tails would come and help him up eventually, but for the time being… “You suck!”


	5. Beach Episode

“Hey Taaiiilllsss!!" Sonic cried, opening the door to the workshop with a flourish. "Your favorite brother is home!"

"Which one, Zonic or Scourge?" rang the fox's voice from downstairs. He must've been in the basement, tinkering again. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Hah hah, very funny, kid." He walked inside and closed the door with his foot. It felt good to be back, even though he'd only been gone for about a week and a half. Healing up after the whole Time Eater thing took him longer than he expected, so by the time his legs were better again, he'd pent up enough energy to take him around the world, twice. After that initial burst, he'd kept darting around, hitting up his favorite major cities across the globe. Partly to stretch his legs and experience someplace that wasn't the workshop, and partly to make sure the planet was alright. He did kind of put the whole world back together by himself. It seemed that he'd done a good job, though. He hadn't found any evidence of the Time Eater's attack having a lasting impact.

Still, that being said, Tails had gotten used to having his big bro around again, so Sonic couldn't keep himself away for too long. Especially since, apparently, he now had two other hedgehogs to compete with to be Tails's favorite. He meant that sarcastically, of course. Tails had already assured him that he was irreplaceable.

Speaking of Tails, the fox had raced out of the basement, flying across the living room to give Sonic a high five near the front door. His fur was stained black in places, from ash or oil the hedgehog couldn't quite tell.

"Jeez, what've you been tinkering with, bud?" the speedster asked, eyeing the black smudges.

"Portal tech. Zonic's belt got me interested," the two-tail said proudly, clearly excited about what this new project could have in store. "How're you doing, though? Your legs hold up alright?"

"Held up perfect! They'd better, considering how long you kept me cooped up in here," he said, a hint of joking annoyance in his voice. He ruffled Tails's bangs with his hand, and stepped further into the house. “I’m doin’ good, the planet’s doin’ good, everything looks good.”

“Good.”

“Good?”

“Goodie-goodie good,” Tails laughed. “So come on, give me the scoop. I know you’ve got more to say than just ‘good.’”

“Oh, naturally,” Sonic said, and the two brothers walked into the kitchen. Sonic had completely burned through his lunch on his way home, and Tails was so preoccupied in the lab that he’d forgotten to eat entirely, so they wound up making food while they talked. Throughout the conversation, though, it seemed like the speedster was eagerly building up to one thing. He grinned excitedly as he closed the microwave door on a plate of nachos. “Tails, I found a place. And it was awesome.”

“Yeah? What kinda place?” Tails asked, sitting on the kitchen counter and eating the small tortilla chips that didn’t make the cut, and were left off the nacho team.

The hedgehog jabbed at the ‘Add 30 Seconds’ button and hit start. “A beach,” he said, emerald eyes sparkling. “The  _ best _ beach. It’s down south in the tropics, so it’s nice and hot, the sand is silky soft, and it’s totally surrounded by cliffs. There’s pretty much no way to get down there, unless you can run faster than gravity can pull you. And it’s big, and it doesn’t get very windy there, and I even stuck my hand in the water  _ for Science _ and determined,  _ Scientifically _ , that the ocean is pleasantly warm.”

“Scientifically, you say?” the fox giggled, stroking his imaginary beard in thought. “Well then, I suppose I shall have to visit this beach myself, posthaste. For science.”

“My thoughts exactly. I’m thinkin’ we round up the crew, make a day out of it? You and me, Knuckles, Amy, Scourge and Z?”

“We can try,” Tails shrugged. “I’ll spread the word around, see when everyone’s free. Not like Zonic or Knuckles are ever free, but… when would be the most convenient time for us to steal them for a day, I guess.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Sonic said, opening the microwave door and pulling out the nachos, the snack having reached maximum meltiness. “But first, we eat.”

 

It took a little bit of doing to find a day when everyone could go, with Zonic’s and Knuckles’ schedules being particularly stubborn. The only reason the echidna agreed to leave his post was that the beach was secluded and secret, and with Zonic’s portals, transport would take no time at all. If no one knew he was gone in the first place, no one would try and steal away the Master Emerald. The guardian still took a couple days to booby trap his island, just in case. Likewise, Zonic had no time to spend the whole day at the beach, especially with a war taking place in his home world. He honestly didn’t mind sticking around No Zone instead of taking a vacation, but Zector and Zespio had overheard Tails’ call and insisted that Zonic go. “Just call in sick!” they’d urged him, pointing out that the single time he’d ever played hookie was when he went to Mobius Prime to fight the Time Eater. Zonic gave into their badgering, and the morning of the trip, called Chief Zlaze to inform her that he’d just come down with a nasty stomach virus.

Everyone assembled at the workshop early on the afternoon of the trip. Scourge and Amy had come in on the train together, bringing their beach stuff in backpacks and totes. Amy went to change shortly after they arrived, eager to wear her new red bikini. Zonic and Knuckles had arrived shortly after, coming through one of the Zone Cop's portals. Knuckles hadn't landed Angel Island, so he had to hitch a ride. "I can't believe you people talked me into this," Zonic said, glaring mainly at Sonic as he stepped out of his portal. "You're all a bad influence on me, I can _ feel  _ it."

"Z, you've been working harder than ever. You've been doing Zone Cop stuff, like, 24/7, and when you're not doing that, you're training with Knuckles. This break is for your own good," Sonic said, smirking as he loaded up a cooler with sodas and water bottles he'd taken from the fridge in the kitchen. It didn't take them long to assemble all their gear, and for Amy and Zonic to change. Tails had found the beach via satellite the night before, and he gave Z the coordinates they'd need to program his belt. He dialed it in without any trouble, and then they were off.

The six stepped onto a beautiful sandy beach, all pausing to take in the sight. It was a perfect scene, the beach totally spotless and undisturbed by the outside world. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the clear blue water lapped up gently on the sand. The breeze was gentle, as the beach was enclosed by high, shady cliffs on three sides.

“Wow…” Amy whispered, the first one to break the silence. “Sonic, this is amazing.”

Knuckles smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Gotta say, Sonic, you really outdid yourself this time. Nice find."

"Thank you," the hedgehog in question replied, puffing out his chest and beaming proudly. "Anyone else want to congratulate me on finding the best beach ever? Hm? Any takers?"

Zonic closed the portal off behind him and stared in awe at the shore, his mouth twitching into a smile. "I... I forget how beautiful your world is. Just... damn. Totally worth skipping work."

"Meh. I've seen better," Scourge rolled his eyes under his sunglasses. "Where's the snack bar? The hot babes?  _ The bathrooms?" _ Tails elbowed him under the ribs, shushing him.

"If you gotta go," the fox said, eyeing him skeptically, "you can just take Zonic's belt and 'port back to the house." His face softened as he turned to face Sonic again. "I think this place is amazing! I can't wait to hit the water. What do you think the waves'll be like?" He grinned from ear to ear, clutching his body board tight. It was bright blue, and seemed to have jet nozzles sticking out the back of it.

Sonic jammed a beach umbrella into the soft sand with a grunt. "Don't know. Don't care. I'm gonna chill right here where it's nice and dry."

"How did I know you were going to say that?" Tails sighed as his brother opened the umbrella with a satisfying  _ foomp! _ "Is anyone else going to come in with me?" the fox addressed the rest of them, kicking off his flip flops.

Knuckles shrugged. "Maybe once we've got everything here set up."

"Fuck no," Scourge shook his head. "I'm with Blue on this one. Me an' water don't mix."

Amy slipped off her sandals, setting them in the sand next to Tails's. "I'll go in with you," the girl said. She removed her cover-up, revealing the red and white bikini she was wearing underneath. "We can leave the party poopers here!" She laughed, sending a wink Sonic's way so he got the message that she was just kidding.

"Sounds like a plan," Zonic smirked, cracking his neck to the side. He unclicked his belt and set it aside with the rest of everyone's things. "The water looks amazing!"

Everyone except for Sonic stared at him incredulously.  _ "You swim??" _

The Zone Cop blinked, not expecting the surprise. “Um… Yeah. Water’s never really bothered me, I guess?” he said sheepishly.

Scourge shook his head and began unloading his bag. “Of course, you  _ wouldn’t _ inherit the whole water thing from Sonic. Lucky bastard…” he grumbled, unfolding a beach chair and wedging it firmly in the ground.

Sonic laughed as half of their group headed for the ocean. “Seriously, you blame me for that? So cheap, dude.”

“Who else am I supposed to blame?”

“What, you think I  _ wanted _ to hate water?”

Knuckles pinched the bridge of his nose. “Will you two shut up?” he complained, setting up a second umbrella. “I thought we came here to relax and have a good time.”

Scourge glared at him. “Sorry for disturbing you, Mr. I-still-don’t-trust-Scourge-for-trying-to-hijack-the-Master-Emerald-that-one-time.” Sonic groaned and shook his head as Knuckles balled his fists.

“You got that right, I don’t trust you. You want a black eye to match those scars I gave you?”

Scourge grinned, showing off his sharp teeth. “You wanna go? Bring it on, enchilada.”

“I’m an _ echidna,  _ Lawnhead.”

_ “Lawnhead?!” _

“Really, guys?” Sonic said, standing between the two. “Knuckles is right, we came here to have some fun and relax. Can’t you two at least try and get along?” Scourge and Knuckles continued to stare daggers at each other for a moment or two before breaking eye contact, the echidna turning to dig something out of the cooler and the green hedgehog leaning back in his seat. Satisfied at breaking up the fight before it escalated into something physical, Sonic turned his attention to the sea, where everyone else was wading into the water.

 

“Hey, Tails! How’s the water?” Amy called out from the shore, Zonic standing next to her. Tails had already run into the ocean, more than excited to try out his jet-propelled body board.

“Not too cold, actually!” the fox yelled back, submerged up to his chest. “Come on in!”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Zonic said, pulling off his t-shirt and tossing it in a ball back to the dryer sand. Amy blinked. Even though Zonic was still wearing trunks, just taking his shirt off made him look so much more like Sonic. They truly looked practically identical, the only differences being the scars on Zonic’s leg and the thin tattoo on his wrist. On his opposite wrist was a silver bracelet, which looked suspiciously electronic.

“Um, can that go in water?” Amy asked, pointing to the bracelet. “It’s sort of blinking, it won’t get shorted out?”

“Oh, this? It’s my stabilizer, it keeps me grounded in other Zones. My world is sideways, so I’m stuck sideways, y’know? This is a newer model, so it’s waterproof. Unlike last time… Yeah, I kinda sent word down to R&D that a waterproof version was badly needed.” The cop laughed, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. Water hit his bare feet as the waves rolled in. It sent a small shiver up his spine, more from the surprise than from the temperature. "Huh, Tails was right. Not as cold as I thought it would be," he smiled, happily wading further into the water. Once he was in up to his knees, he realized Amy was taking her time in following him in. "Something wrong?" he asked the pink hedgehog, who was staring at him wide-eyed.

"Hm? Oh, no! No, everything's totally fine," Amy said, quickly looking down at the water, embarrassed that she was caught staring. "It's just kind of surreal. Since you look so much like Sonic, and Sonic  _ hates _ water. He would have been out of here as soon as his feet even got wet."

Zonic's eyeridges shot up in surprise. "It's that bad? Really?" Tails paddled over to them, using his namesakes as a propeller as he hugged his body board. "Tails, is Sonic really  _ that  _ nervous around water?"

"Are you kidding?" the young fox answered. "He doesn't like people knowing, but Sonic's a huge hydrophobe. If it's not coming out of a faucet, he's scared of the stuff like you wouldn't believe."

"Wow, seriously? I mean, I knew he couldn't swim, but... Huh. Guess I don't know as much about Prime as I thought I did."

"Let's be honest, Sonic keeps a lot of things secret," Tails shrugged. "Pretty sure he doesn't have a secret crush on anyone, though," he said just as Amy's face started to light up with hope. "Sorry, Amy."

"Oh! Tails, don't get my hopes up for nothing!" the girl whined, half-joking, and splashed Tails to get back at him. The kit laughed, his bangs drooping down into his eyes.

"Oh, trust me, you don't want any of this!" he said, sitting up on his board and preparing to splash her back. Before he even got the chance, Zonic rushed him from the side and got underneath his board, flipping him over and into the water. Amy stifled laughter as Tails resurfaced, completely soaked. "That's it! This means war!" Tails cried, going at the two hedgehogs with everything he had.

This soon evolved into a full-scale water war, with all three parties splashing and tackling the others with reckless abandon. Tails started using his jet-propelled body board for drive-by splashings, so Zonic and Amy only felt that it was fair that they retreat back to the shore to arm themselves with the water guns that someone had the foresight to bring. Agreeing on a temporary truce to bring down the two-tailed powerhouse, the two hedgehogs raced back into the ocean, guns ablazing.

The screeching and howling laughter from their water fight could be heard by the other three on shore, eliciting curious glances towards the water. "The hell is goin' on out there? They dyin' or somethin'?" Scourge asked, pushing his shades to the top of his head. He was relaxing in the shade of the umbrellas, an open can of soda in his hand. Sonic was a few feet away, lying out in the sun.

"Looks like a splash fight to me. One that Tails is losing pretty badly," the blue blur chuckled. He knew from experience that Tails was a vicious splasher-- getting the kid to take a bath when he was younger ended up with everything in the room getting completely soaked through-- at it was satisfying to see him be on the receiving end of it for once.

“Oh, that’s just unfair,” Knuckles said, watching Tails get nailed on both sides by two simultaneous attacks. “I think maybe he could use a hand.”

“Hey, be my guest,” Sonic said, motioning towards the bag full of water guns several feet away. “Go show Ames and Z who’s boss. We’ll hold the fort.”

“Sure you don’t want to come, too?” the echidna asked, walking towards the guns and rifling through them to find one that suited him. “You can just stay where it’s dryer and shoot from there.”

Sonic shook his head without hesitation. “Nah, I’m good! The water guns probably won’t reach them from that far, anyway,” he said quickly. He gave Knuckles a thumbs up. “Go kick butt for me!”

Knuckles shrugged. “Sure, if you say so.” He took off running through the sand, unscrewing the cap on the gun’s tank as he went. “Hey, Tails! Backup is on the way!”

“Finally, Red’s gone,” Scourge sighed, taking a sip of his soda. “Now I can actually relax.”

“Aw, Knux is a good dude. He’s usually pretty trusting, but I guess he’s been backstabbed one too many times. The number of times Eggman managed to fool him just by using those puppy dog eyes of his... “ Sonic chuckled. “He’ll warm up to you, don’t sweat it.”

“I don’t care too much either way,” the green one muttered, slipping his sunglasses back over his eyes. He dug his toes into the sand and turned his eyes to the ocean, where Knuckles was now joining the fray. "So. What, uh..." He sniffed and scratched behind his ear. "What made  _ you _ hate water?"

Sonic's ears perked up at the question. "Um... I don't really think it was one singular event, y'know? I mean, if it was, I was too young to remember it. I just was always afraid of it, especially because I sink like a rock. I just-- I dunno, I always feel like--"

"Like you won't be able to get out again?"

"... Yeah, actually. How did you-- oh, yeah, right. You're me. I forget sometimes. Because a lot of the time, it really does feel like we’re twins or something, but… Nah, we are  _ literally _ the same person."

"Right? It’s fuckin’ weird. An’ you know, I never talked to anyone about this junk. You've told Tails, I assume, but I've just been keepin' shit like this bottled up my whole life. Never thought I'd have anyone to talk to who understands this kinda stuff, but hey, here we are."

"I getcha. For years, Tails would try to get me to go in the water, insisting he would teach me to swim. He just never really got that I  _ didn't want to _ . That I know that the water won't bite, that it's… somewhat safe... but I still just don't wanna go in. I'm still not sure he gets it, really. But he tries."

"How the  _ hell _ Z didn't end up like we did, that's what I'd like to know," Scourge chuckled. "I mean, look at 'im out there. Guy's completely at ease. It's unnatural."

"At least you and Z don't look identical. It's like I'm looking into a mirror. A really, really weird mirror." Sonic had to admit, it was almost a little off-putting to see Zonic enjoying himself in the ocean so much. Tails, Amy, and Knuckles seemed to have gotten used to it quickly enough, but no matter how many times he saw his No Zone-self swim, it always freaked Sonic out. "So... was there one time that made  _ you _ afraid to go in the water?"

"That's none of yer business, Blue," Scourge  _ hmph _ ed.

"Aw, come on, I told you why I don't like the stuff. It's only fair."

"S'not my fault you're an open book."

"What, you think I’ll spill about just anything?" Sonic smirked. "Tell."

"Ugh, fine. Pushy McNosypants," the green hog rolled his eyes. "It was nothin' special, just my old man bein' a shitty parent again. When I was real little, when Mom was still alive, we all went on a family yacht trip. Fun times, right? Except for the fact that my dad wasn't payin' attention when he was puttin' on my life vest, and neither of my parents were payin' attention when I stumbled and fell under one of the guard rails. Luckily it wasn't that high of a drop, but the jacket came off when I hit the water. It was a good thing someone had the sense to dive in and grab me 'fore I drowned."

“Yikes… Yeah, that’ll do it,” Sonic said quietly, a cold bead of sweat dripping down the back of his neck. That must’ve been  _ terrifying,  _ especially to a little kid. No wonder Scourge wanted to know if something similar had happened to him. “I’m sorry that happened to you, that’s awful.”

“To be fair, pretty much everything in my life was awful for a long time. It is what it is,” the Moebian shrugged.

“Mm. What’s passed is past, right?” The blue hedgehog offered up a smile.

“Readin’ my mind, Blue,” Scourge nodded. He drank from his soda quietly as the conversation between them fell into a lull. The sounds of laughter and battle cries could be heard coming from the ocean as the water fight waged on. Sonic flipped himself over on his towel so that he was laying on his stomach, resting comfortably as the afternoon sun warmed him. He was about to drift off, listening to the easy in and out of the ocean, when Scourge quietly spoke. “Thanks, Sonic.”

“Hmm? What for?” Sonic asked, propping himself up on his elbows.

“For… for takin’ me seriously. For listenin’, not makin’ fun of me and whatever.” He spoke quickly, like he was trying to get the words out before he changed his mind.

“Wha… Why would I make fun of you? For opening up about this stuff?” the blue one frowned. “Look man, I bottle stuff up all the time, stuff that I know I should talk to someone about. I’m not very good at being anything other than happy. I think you’re the same way, that anything other than anger or apathy is out of your comfort zone. For me, it takes a lot to talk about serious stuff, like being afraid. I’m not gonna insult you, I’ll give you props. Telling me about the time you almost  _ drowned _ has to take serious guts. And besides, everyone’s scared of something, everyone gets sad about some things. I got your back, man. I don’t judge.”

“Hmph. Good to know.” Scourge leaned back in his chair, his head tilted up towards the sky. He was still not used to having friends, and part of him still expected some sort of backlash whenever he opened up about anything. But with Sonic, that was never the case. Maybe it was because the two were extremely similar at their core, and it was easy for them to understand what was going on in the other’s head. Talking to Sonic about his fear of water was easy, since they both experienced the same fear. It just felt strange to have someone easy to talk to about almost anything.  _ ‘Well, being friends with a bunch’a heroes does have its perks, I guess,’ _ Scourge thought.  _ ‘Including, but not limited to: not being fuckin’ persecuted for your faults.’ _ The corner of his lip twitched, a small smile forming. That wasn’t the only positive thing to come out of turning his life around, of course. For example, he was lounging on a private beach instead of nursing bruises in a jail cell. He was hanging out with people he felt he could trust, instead of a group of opportunists who could turn on him at any second.  _ ‘Yeah,’ _ he smirked, finishing off his can of soda,  _ ‘this whole career change was a good idea on my part. Good job, past Scourge.’ _

 

It was almost five o’clock by the time Zonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles came out of the ocean, all soaked to the bone and exhausted from their prolonged water battle. Sonic and Scourge had both fallen asleep in the passing hours, the warmth from the sun acting as a toasty warm blanket. As the four tired warriors approached them, Knuckles whispered something in Tails’ ear and motioned for everyone else to stay back. The fox crept ahead, coming to stand directly between the two sleeping hedgehogs. He nodded to Knuckles before he shook violently from head to toe, sending water flying off of him and onto his two friends. They both sputtered back to life, wiping the water off of themselves.

“Agh,  _ Tails!!” _ Sonic shouted, having rolled off of his towel in surprise and landing in the hot sand. Everyone who was already soaked laughed at the light shower the two received. “Ugh,” Sonic said, covering his nose. “You smell like a wet dog, dude.”

“Meh. Canine problems,” the fox laughed. “Did you two enjoy your nap?”

“Until the rain started, yeah,” Scourge said grumpily.

“I didn’t even realize I’d fallen asleep,” Sonic admitted. “I probably have crazy sunburn on my back. Not looking forward to dealing with that once it starts to hurt…”

Knuckles smirked, wringing the water out of his dreadlocks. “Well, that’s what you get for gettin’ comfy in the warm sun. Meanwhile, the rest of us were all fighting for our lives.”

Amy wrapped a towel around herself and nodded. “It got  _ really _ intense, huh? Especially because we were so evenly matched.”

“Evenly matched, are you kidding?” Tails interjected. “Zonic’s crazy good with guns! He managed to shoot water up Knuckles’ nose!”

_ “He did not!” _ the echidna said defensively. Zonic chuckled.

“Yeah, I did. And the fight was  _ absolutely _ even; if it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have been out there for hours, and we wouldn’t have had to call it a draw.”

“You are the least grateful student I’ve ever had,” Knuckles grumbled under his breath.

Scourge wiped the water off of his sunglasses. “Wow, sure am sorry I missed out on that party,” he said sarcastically. “So is anyone else starving, or is it just me?”

As it turned out,  _ everyone _ was feeling hungry, and not just for the snacks they’d packed in their bags. They wanted a full meal, especially those who had been fighting in the water. Not totally ready to call it a day for the beach, Zonic opened a portal to a boardwalk (one highly recommended by Sonic). The boardwalk wasn’t too far from their small private beach, so the weather was just as clear and warm. There were a number of people walking about, but not enough for the place to feel very crowded. There was a nice view of a long beach, and they were just close enough to the water that the air still had a tinge of saltiness to it. There was pop music playing through speakers along the boardwalk and the whole place smelled of hot, fried food and sweet desserts.

The gang walked along the boardwalk, looking for some place that looked good to stop for food. They turned quite a few heads, but luckily, they didn’t get swarmed by curious fans. Sonic and Tails got asked for a few selfies, but that was about it. They stopped once they found a pizza place, and from there, it wasn’t long before they were chowing down.

“So, Zonic,” Amy said between bites. “What do you think is the best pizza place in the multiverse?”

_ “The whole multiverse?”  _ the Zone Cop nearly choked. Scourge laughed.

“Haha, yeah man, c’mon, where’s the best pizza? Which dimensions got the good grub?”

“You guys know I usually just go to different Zones when I’m on missions, right?” he asked, smiling awkwardly. “I don’t exactly have a lot of time to sample the food--”

“Z, you’ve been a Zone Cop since you were  _ fourteen years old,” _ Sonic said, gesturing towards Zonic with the slice of pizza in his hand. “Don’t tell me you haven’t tried food from other Zones. Because you’re me, and when I travel, I always love trying the food.”

“Oh my gods,” Zonic snorted quietly. “Uh, I guess for best pizza? Um… I liked Moebius’s a lot,” he said, causing Scourge to let out a whoop. “The Light Zone’s got some killer burritos, though, and Mobius Delta’s got some of the best noodles I’ve ever had.”

“Hah! I don’t sample the food, he says,” Sonic chuckled, punching his counterpart in the arm. This sparked a food conversation that lasted even after they left the restaurant, with everyone telling stories about weird foods they’d tried over the years. Zonic and Sonic dominated the conversation, each being extremely well-traveled, though Knuckles was also able to chime in and talk about old echidnan recipes he had attempted to make.

The six friends, full of warm food and feeling energetic, took to walking around the boardwalk and looking at all the shops and games. Everything looked pretty interesting, though they didn’t see anything worth spending their money on-- until Tails pointed out a sign advertising a 25 Ring Crane Machine Warehouse. Deciding it was worth a look, they all stepped inside.

The term ‘warehouse’ was perhaps a bit generous, but they still entered into a large room that was filled with rows upon rows of crane machines. The place was well-lit and colorful, but had surprisingly few people inside. “Ooooh,” Sonic said, a grin spreading across his face. He quickly sped up and down the aisles, scoping the place out.

“Anything good?” Knuckles asked as Sonic skidded to a stop in front of them a few seconds later.

“...I dunno, I went too fast,” the hedgehog admitted before taking off again, going a bit more slowly this time. When he returned for the second time, he nodded. “Yeah, okay, there’s some pretty good stuff. Lotsa stuffed toys, some plastic Chaos Emeralds, there were some in the back with Chao in Space toys--”

“Outta my way,” Zonic said, eyes wide with excitement. He made a beeline towards the machines in the back, as the others shrugged and decided to follow.

Tails flew above the machines, trying to keep a look out for the ones the Zone Cop might want to visit first. “You like Chao in Space?” he asked, a bit surprised. Zonic had never mentioned it before, and from his expression, it seemed like something he was passionate about.

“Chao in Space is my  _ favorite movie,” _ the cop said, eyes scanning the machines’ contents. “Movies from other Zones used to get released in No Zone a lot, but since the war started up… There hasn’t been much. Aha!” He rushed over to a machine that had caught his eye, this one being filled with various chao in different sorts of robo-walkers. The toys were small, only about the size of his fist, and fairly rounded. “Man, getting one of these out is gonna be a pain,” he groaned, leaning in towards the glass.

Scourge snorted, looking around at the other machines disinterestedly. “Well, I guess we know where you’ll be for the next hour or so.”

“If my rings will even last me that long,” the No Zoner rolled his eyes in reply. He pulled his wallet out of his shorts pocket and reached inside for some rings. “Eh… yeah, this’ll last me a while, actually.” He inserted them into the ring slot, and he started to play.

Amy smiled, patting him on the shoulder. “Well, best of luck to you! I’m gonna look around more, see what else is here. Maybe I can win something for Cream!”

“Aw, nice! I wanna find something too,” Sonic said, stretching his arms out.

“Sonic,” Knuckles deadpanned, “you own like, three things. What do you need to start collecting cheaply-made toys for?”

“I dunno, man! I just wanna win something. Whatever I get, I’ll probably give to some kid on the boardwalk anyway,” he shrugged, turning away from the rest of the group. “Good luck, Z!” He waved and started to wander off, Amy following him. Tails decided to tag along too, so that the two hedgehogs wouldn’t be alone together.

Knuckles lazily began to slunk the other way, leaving Zonic and Scourge alone. By now, Zonic was on his third try with no success.

“Don’t you wanna try and win something?” the No Zoner asked. Scourge did a half-shrug.

“I’ll save my rings. Nothin’ really grabbin’ me, anyway. Which one of those are you goin’ for?”

“Commander Chaoko, the red one on the right.”

Scourge narrowed his eyes as he identified the toy in question. He scooted around to the side, trying to get a view of it through the machine to its left. “You need to move back a little more,” he said, guiding Zonic’s claw. “Little more… ‘kay, good.”

The claw dropped, wrapped around the round form of the chao walker, and… it didn’t grab tight enough. The cop cursed softly under his breath, putting more rings in the machine. “These things are so rigged.”

“So why do you keep playing?”

“Because they’re rigged to make you lose most of the time, but they have to let you win sometime. Or else no one would ever play them, you know? If I keep getting direct hits, it’ll work at some point. It’s science.”

“Yeah… probability or some shit. A little bit more to the left, dude.”

“Thanks. Yeah, probability, that’s it.”

The two hedgehogs made simple conversation as they tried to get the one toy out of the game, both becoming laser focused. After a while, they switched places, with Scourge manning the controls and Zonic looking from the side to judge depth. They nailed the aim almost every time, but the crane refused to get a tight enough grip to lift it. The best they did was knock it over onto its side.

After a bit, Amy returned to them, stuffed animal in hand. Since her attempts at winning had been fruitful, the boys got her to try and win the toy for Zonic, too. It wasn’t long after that that Sonic returned empty-handed and out of rings, and Tails and Knuckles wandered back. The whole gang was watching intensely and taking turns, at this point  _ determined _ not to leave until they’d won the Chao in Space toy for Z.

“I’m gonna go cash in some mobiums for rings,” Tails said, holding up a few bills. “I’ll be right back!”

“What? No, you don’t have to!” Zonic said, his hands on the controls again. “I-It’s just a cheap toy, I’ve probably spent too much money on this as it is.”

“Exactly! You can’t give up now! Besides, you need a souvenir,” the fox said, trotting off to find the closest change machine.

Everyone else nodded in agreement. “Seriously,” Scourge said, “we’ve been here too damn long to walk away empty-handed. Like you said, we’ll win it at some point. And when we do win this thing for you, it had  _ better _ get an honorary and loving spot on your shelf at home.”

“You kidding? If we win this thing, I’ll put it on my desk at work,” the Zone Cop said. “And I’m the only guy in the station without any sort of decoration at my desk. We are talking about a clean, never-been-adorned desk.”

Knuckles snorted. “How am I not surprised?”

“This just got way more intense,” Sonic smiled. “We gotta do it now. This is going to be Z’s first desk toy. Guys, this is history in the making.”

“Good thing I brought my camera,” Amy fished around inside her bag.

“Guys!” Zonic laughed, his cheeks growing hot. “I-It’s not  _ that  _ big a deal, really!”

“Yeah, but it’s fun!” Sonic smiled. “Sometimes it’s just the little things in life, y’know? I think some of the most fun days I’ve had were chill days that Tails and I decided to make a little bit special by just treating ourselves to something.”

Scourge gagged. “Gods, you’re sappy. I’m disgusted to share DNA with you.”

“Both of you shush!” Amy said, pulling out her phone and holding it up sideways. “Everyone stand a little closer together-- oh Tails, you get in this, too!” she said, ushering the returning fox into the frame. Sonic and Tails smiled as she started taking pictures, with Scourge and Knuckles only glancing at the camera apathetically. Zonic, his cheeks flushed, had turned his attention back to the crane game, hunching over it awkwardly.

“OH,” the Zone Cop suddenly gasped, freezing where he stood. “OH, GUYS, I THINK-- OH!”

Everyone instantly turned back to look at the crane machine, staring fiercely through the glass. The toy was in the crane’s grip, and was slowly being lifted in place. They all went dead silent. When the crane went as far up as it could go, it started moving to the side, towards where it would drop off the prize. Little Commander Chaoko slipped a little bit when the crane shifted direction, causing them all to gasp, but the crane managed to hang on. It just had to move a little bit more, a little closer… After what felt like an eternity, the crane was positioned over the hole. It opened its jaws, dropping the toy directly into the hole, sending it down the chute and releasing it from its glass prison.

Everyone immediately started screaming ecstatically, like it was the happiest moment of their lives. Tails was jumping up and down, Scourge was shaking Zonic by the shoulders, and Amy was giggling with her phone still out, recording their reactions. Sonic and Knuckles high fived, locking eyes and suddenly trying to out-scream each other. Meanwhile, Zonic held his new prize in one hand, and his face in the other. His cheeks turned a bright red as his friends continued cheering, drawing the attention of everyone else in the arcade and a number of people outside on the boardwalk.

"You guys are so embarrassing," he whined, to which everyone else laughed, except Sonic and Knuckles. They stopped screaming, out of breath, and Sonic doubled over wheezing and laughing. Knuckles was taking deep breaths, leaning up against the crane machine next to him. Zonic couldn't help but chuckle. "...Why??" he asked, looking at them both as if they had grown second heads.

Tails shook his head. "Don't question it. This is why we don't let them go out in public," he snorted. Sonic raised a finger and looked like he was about to retort, but he just kept laughing instead.

"I can't believe I recorded that whole thing," Amy smiled, saving the video. "Z, lemme see what you won! One last pic!" Zonic obliged, holding up the small figure and smiling sheepishly. Scourge stuck his tongue out at the camera, and Tails pointed comically to the doubled-over Sonic and Knuckles in the background. "Oh yeah, this is a keeper," the girl laughed, taking the picture and then stowing her phone away.

"Cool, can we go now?" the cop said with a laugh. "I'm all out of money, and I'm pretty sure they'll kick us out anyway if we keep being so loud."

"Yeah," Sonic gasped in agreement, "I... I think I'm done with the boardwalk. I'm flat broke, too!"

“Same,” Amy chimed in, holding up her prize as proof.

 

By the time they all made their way back to their private beach, the sun had set, and the clear sky glittered with stars. The ocean seemed to have slowed down, the crashes of the waves on the shore becoming quieter as the night set in. It was still pleasantly warm outside, but the beach had grown very dark, isolated from the lights and sounds of the boardwalk. It was quiet except for the sounds of Zonic’s portal closing, their footsteps through the loose sand, and the gentle rolling of the waves.

Everyone started walking back to where they’d left their things a couple hours earlier, except Zonic. He was staring up at the stars, struggling to take them all in. He’d seen stars before, of course, but not terribly often. Most nights, he was in Zone City, where the light pollution hid all the stars from view. He was always captivated by a good view, and this many stars in the clear sky, with the ocean as a backdrop… it was something.

He felt someone grab him by the arm, and he turned to see Knuckles, slyly grinning and dragging him back over towards the others. “C’mon, city boy. We’re starting a campfire.”

While he had been distracted, Sonic had dashed up the cliffside and fetched a few armfuls of firewood. He set it not far from their other supplies, so bringing over the beach chairs was easy. After Zonic and Knuckles rejoined the group, the fire didn’t take long to get going. Before they knew it, they were all sitting around a roaring fire, just relaxing.

It was a peaceful ending to the day, all of them starting to feel tired after spending so much time out and about. Even Sonic and Scourge, who had napped, were starting to get sleepy again. The green hedgehog was leaning far back in his beach chair, eyes unfocused and pointed towards the fire. Tails sat next to him, roasting some marshmallows he had packed just for this specific purpose. He passed a stick with a fresh marshmallow to Knuckles, though the echidna was more interested in watching the treats slowly burn and drip off the stick than actually eating them. Zonic went back to staring up at the sky, and Amy, now bent on keeping a record of the remainder of their beach day, was back to taking pictures. Sonic, once he was done building up and tending to the fire, walked over to their pile of beach bags and pulled out something that no one had even seen him pack up: an acoustic guitar.

“Oh Chaos, you  _ would _ be that douche,” Scourge laughed when he brought it back over to them. “You’re the acoustic guitar douche!”

“Every friend group needs one,” Sonic smirked as he sat down, crossing his legs and resting the guitar on his knees.

“Aw, cute!” Amy cheered with a smile. “Campfire singalong!”

“Eh, if you want,” Sonic shrugged. “I kinda just wanted to noodle around a lil’ bit.” He turned his attention to tuning the guitar, gently turning the knobs at the head and testing out the strings.

“Good,” Scourge said with a  _ hmph.  _ “‘Cause I sure as shit ain’t about to sing anything.”

Tails grinned, shooting him an incredulous look. “Aw, what? Why?”

“I don’t sing, pipsqueak. ‘Sides, I sound like Sonic chewed and swallowed a whole cigarette. My voice ain’t good for it.”

“Like that stops Sonic,” Knuckles said, still not taking his eyes off the melting marshmallow he held in the fire.

“Hey!”

“He’s just kidding, Sonic,” Amy said, shooting Knuckles a subtle glare that went unnoticed.

“No I wasn’t,” Knuckles said back.

Sonic stuck his tongue out at him as he finished tuning, gently strumming the guitar to make sure it sounded right. The sound snapped Zonic out of his reverie, and brought him back to the group. Sonic started playing a simple tune, one that didn’t have too much structure or any words. He simply hummed along, letting the song go wherever it wanted. It was a nice, bright sound, one that was calming and friendly. Tails started to drum along, picking up some sticks that hadn’t been consumed by the fire and using them to bang on whatever was nearby. Amy filmed with her phone, holding the device with one hand and using the other to clap on her thigh. Scourge tried to hide his smile, kind of enjoying how sappy and cliche the moment-- no, the whole day-- was. Sonic eventually started playing recognizable songs, still humming along at first, but slowly starting to mix some words into it.

Heads were bobbing and feet were tapping along, though no one else sang along until Sonic started playing a long rock ballad that he and Tails both knew all the words to. The two brothers started singing loudly, Sonic strumming hard and Tails drumming passionately on his knees.

They played until their arms were tired, their hands and fingers beginning to get sore and their voices threatened to crack. Polite applause ensued, and Sonic bowed dramatically.

“You done?” Scourge joked with a yawn, tilting his head back and squeezing his eyes shut. “Aah, jeez. What time is it?”

Amy checked the time on her phone, suppressing a yawn herself. “Uh, it’s a bit past 9.”

“Dang, really?” Sonic chuckled, stretching out his fingers. “Well, time flies when you’re having fun, I guess.”

“Ugh… guys, I have work tomorrow,” Zonic groaned, slouching over and burrowing his toes into the sand. His face scrunched up in mild annoyance. He usually liked going to work, he loved his job. But he didn’t want to leave, he just wanted to stay and be with his friends and camp out under the stars.

“Can’t you just call in sick again?” Tails asked, holding one of his makeshift drumsticks in the fire, watching it intensely as it started to turn black.

“No way. The chief’ll have my ass, and I can’t ask Zector and Zespio to cover for me two days in a row. Even if they were the ones who wanted me to come here in the first place,” he sighed. “I’ll probably have to leave soon. I’m totally wiped,  _ and _ I gotta shower when I get back.”

“And you’re our ride,” Scourge grumbled. “Lame. Draggin’ us home early…”

Knuckles shrugged. “We’ve been on the beach all day. This was fun, but I think I’ve had my fill.” He climbed to his feet, stretching as he did so. “We might as well start packing up.”

They all tiredly agreed, and they started packing up their supplies. Towels, chairs, umbrellas, snacks, water guns, all got sorted between their owners and packed into bags. With all six of them, it didn’t take long to assemble everything. Last but not least, they put out what remained of their bonfire, scattering the rest of the wood. Once that was all done, Zonic started opening portals, sending everyone home. Sonic and Tails waved cheerfully as they went back to the workshop. Scourge gave the Zone Cop a high five before jumping through the portal to his apartment building, Amy following after him and telling Zonic that she would send him photos the next day. Knuckles confirmed the date of their next training session before he walked through the portal to Angel Island, finding the Master Emerald in the same place he’d left it.

With each of the three portals closed, Zonic yawned before opening up his own, leading him back to his own apartment in Zone City. He climbed through the portal, adjusting himself to the shift in gravity and Zector and Zespio immediately bombarded him with questions about his day.

The next day, everyone in the station was astounded to see a small, red, Chao in Space toy proudly sitting on Zonic’s desk.

 


	6. In Your Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, it's been a while! I had a new chapter I wanted to put up, and then I realized that I never finished cross-posting this story from FFN. So I'm going to be spamming chapters over the next couple days until we're all caught up here, lol. Sorry for the incoming inbox flood!

Sonic smiled triumphantly, tossing the cyan Emerald up in the air with one hand. “Well, that wasn’t too hard.”

“Piece of cake,” Scourge agreed, stretching his arms up above his head before letting out a loud yawn. “Took for-freakin’-ever, though.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, there’s no real shortcut to getting through Rail Canyon.” The two hedgehogs trudged out of the old train station, newly-acquired Emerald in tow. The once normal station had been long ago claimed by Eggman, and had been subsequently warped into a deathtrap. Though the place had largely been abandoned since the last time Sonic had his friends had run through, portions of the machinery had started to recently come back online. The Chaos Emerald had been found in one of the generator rooms, sending power to the bullet trains and cannons all across the canyon. Whether Eggman had put it there or if it had appeared all by itself, the twin hedgehogs weren’t sure yet. “We should keep an eye on this place,” Sonic said as they walked. It was dark outside, the stars in clear view overhead. “Just in case Eggman decides to show.”

“A stakeout, huh? That’s something I’d expect from a mission with Captain Helmet Head.” Scourge rolled his eyes and kicked at a loose rock, sending it tumbling against the dark red ground. “Do we at least get coffee and donuts?”

“Um,” the blue one swung his small backpack over his shoulder and unzipped it, peering inside. “We can have hotdogs if we get a fire going.”

Scourge snorted. “Yeah, alright.”

There wasn’t a ton of wood lying around the industrial canyon, but they found plenty of crates and fire-starting materials inside the station. Soon they had a roaring fire going, and with the hotdogs roasting, it felt kind of like a camping trip. They were up on a high cliff, next to a station, and they had a good view of the whole canyon from there. Scourge kept watch, looking for movement below, while Sonic cooked. The fire burned hot, so it wasn’t long before the hotdogs were done.

“I wish we had some chili for these,” Scourge said, eating his dog dry. While his good twin had packed hotdogs and buns, he’d neglected to bring any condiments.

“Ugh, I know, right?!” Sonic lamented. “I wanted to make some before I left and put it in a tupperware to bring along, but Tails said there wasn’t enough time.” He sighed loudly before taking a big bite of his dinner. “Didn’t know you liked chili dogs, though.”

“They’re like, the perfect food.”

“Couldn’t agree with you more, pal. Tails thinks I’m delusional, but he just doesn’t understand.”

“That’s what Miles always said about me! Usually paired with an insult or a threat or something, though,” Scourge snickered.

“Heh. Well, at the very least, I’m glad we get along now. It’s much less exhausting that way.” Sonic winked before stuffing his mouth with hotdog.

The green hedgehog smiled mischievously. “Bet I can eat my hotdogs faster than you.”

“YOU’RE ON!!”

Like most contests of speed, they were evenly matched. After eating five dogs each, barely tasting them as they went down, the two declared themselves “Done!” at the same time. This lead to a screaming match of “Jinx! Double jinx! Black magic!!” before turning into a wrestling match. They didn’t fight for long, tired from the day’s events and feeling slightly sick from the hotdogs. Soon, they were lying on their backs, laughing and playfully arguing about who the victor was.

“I totally--” Scourge cough-wheezed, “won that hotdog thing.”

“Okay, then I won jinx. You owe me a soda,” Sonic said in between deep breaths.

“Yeah, in your dreams, Blue.” He stuck his tongue out at him before yawning ferociously.

Sonic chuckled as he sat up. “Sounds like the King needs his beauty sleep.”

“Like I need sleep to look this good,” the Moebian scoffed. “... And don’t call me King.”

“Oh. No prob,” the blue one lightly shrugged. “I’ll take the first watch?”

Scourge stretched out on the ground, getting comfortable. “Yyyyyyyyep. Night, Blue.”

“Night, Green.”

The green hedgehog quickly nodded off, while Sonic stayed up, sitting with the light blue Chaos Emerald in his hands. He looked over the canyon, checking for signs of Eggman or any robot activity. He kept the fire burning, occasionally glanced over at Scourge, and ultimately decided to meditate a little bit with the Emerald. Knuckles had been hard on his case lately about Chaos stuff. Zonic was training, so Sonic was expected to put in more effort, too (Scourge was exempt, since he was still banned from Angel Island). He managed to meditate for a little while, but he ended up falling asleep, the Emerald still in his hands.

Sonic found himself in a long, seemingly endless hallway. It reminded him of a fancy hotel: ornate carpet and lighting, and identical doors lining each wall. The fur on the back of his neck bristled. Something about this place made him feel uncomfortable. Like he was trapped, or being watched. He decided to start walking, arbitrarily picking a direction, since the hall continued infinitely both ways.

He had started off walking, but when the scenery remained the same after a few minutes, he started running.  _ Something _ around here had to change at some point. Eventually he started tugging on all the doors, finding them all locked. He groaned. If he had been able to realize then that this was a dream, he’d quickly rank it as one of the most boring dreams he’d ever had.

His ears flicked as he heard something. It sounded like… far off breathing, like whimpering. Not quite sobbing, but a similar tone. Was there someone else there? The blue blur stopped running and listened for the source of the sound. Inexplicably, it seemed to be coming from far behind him, which seemed weird, but nothing in this hallway felt normal so far. Simply rolling with it, Sonic turned around, seeing a figure in the distance, curled up and sitting on the floor against one wall. The hedgehog’s eyes widened, and he slowly made his way back the way he came. He didn’t want to scare… whoever this was.

“Hey, are you okay?” he called out. The figure looked up, seemingly terrified. They were still far away, but… they looked like a certain green hedgehog. “Scourge?” Sonic gasped.

He kept walking closer, now easily able to recognize the other person as Scourge. But the closer he got, even though he was walking slowly, the more frightened Scourge looked. When they were only about fifty feet apart, Scourge stood up and bolted away, running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

“Wha-- wait, stop!” Sonic yelled, breaking into a run. Why the heck was Scourge running from him? What was going on? He hit his top speed quickly, the hallway around him blurring as he blasted through the sound barrier. Even though Scourge could run as fast as him, and the green one had a head start, the gap between them was closing. “Scourge, what’s going on?!” Sonic yelled uselessly, since he was running faster than sound could travel. His words got lost behind him as he closed in on Scourge. He got close enough to latch his hand around Scourge’s wrist, causing the green one to freak out and stop dead in his tracks. This sent both of them tumbling, hitting the carpet hard. Their arms and legs got rug burned as they both rolled to a stop, good twin on top of the bad.

Sonic was seconds away from asking Scourge why he ran, what this place was, what was going on, when he saw his friend’s face. Scourge was  _ terrified.  _ Not only that, but he looked… a little bit younger. Maybe fifteen, sixteen years old. What was going on? “... Scourge? Are you okay?”

Scourge shoved, trying to get Sonic off of him. “Get away from me!!” he shouted, voice cracking and blue eyes wild.

“What? Why? I’m your friend, remember?”

“Not in this place you aren’t,” he hissed, choking back tears. “Either you’re gonna try to kill me, or somethin’ll take over my body and I’ll try to kill you and I can’t do nothin’ but  _ watch-- _ agh!” He almost wriggled himself out from under Sonic, but the blue hedgehog threw himself on top of him again.

Sonic frowned. He hated seeing Scourge this freaked out, but if he let him get up, they’d just end up in a chase again. “Why would I try and kill you?! I don’t want to hurt you, I just want to talk! What happened to you, where are we?”

“Stop trying to trick me!” the Moebian yelled, continuing to struggle. “You know where we are, and I  _ know _ you’re not on my side! You’re not really Sonic, you’re just--”

“I’m just what?! Tell me, ‘cause I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

_ “You’re just a damn nightmare!” _ Scourge screamed, tears pricking at his eyes. “Just some fucking figment of my imagination! It’s always the same thing! I fall asleep, dream about this fuckin’ hallway, and something tries to fucking kill me! Smalls, dad, the Time Eater,  _ myself, _ and fuckin’ Blue and Tails and Z!! Dreamin’ about my fuckin’ best friends tryin’ to murder me while I can’t do  _ nothin’--” _

“Whoa whoa! Calm down, hey, shh,” Sonic said, loosening his grip on Scourge ever so slightly. “A nightmare…? Am I dreaming this right now?”

Scourge froze, his eyes still wet, and his face contorting in confusion.  _ “You  _ dreamin’? Nuh uh, this is  _ my _ nightmare, pal,  _ my _ head. I’ve lived through it enough times to know.”

“But… no, I’m really me. I  _ know _ I’m Sonic,” the blue one said, thinking out loud. “You fell asleep, I kept watch, I decided to start meditating… with the Chaos Emerald… shit, I must’ve fallen asleep while I was using it.”

“... You said ‘shit.’ Sonic never says ‘shit.’ Not even when  _ I _ dream him up,” Scourge said quietly, narrowing his eyes.

“First of all, not true, I just save language like that for special occasions,” Sonic corrected him. “And second, if I’m dreaming, I don’t have much of a filter, do I? Just my brain, raw and uncut. Kind of ‘stream of consciousness’ right now, y’know?”

“You… you fell asleep with the Emerald… you wound up in my dream?” the scared hedgehog breathed.

“I guess so. Damn Emeralds, can’t they just behave predictably for once?” Sonic sighed. He climbed off of Scourge, who was still frozen in shock, his face still that of a terrified kid. Sonic smiled down at him. “I’m the real deal, man. I’m not gonna hurt’cha, I promise.” He extended a hand to help up the fallen hedgehog.

Scourge stared wide-eyed at the gloved hand, tentatively reaching up with his own. He touched Sonic’s hand, feeling that it was solid, and warm. It felt substantial, more so than anything else in this place. “You’re real,” he choked, pulling himself up and wrapping his arms around Sonic’s shoulders in one swift movement. “Oh my gods you’re real, you’re real…!” He started to laugh, which quickly turned into a half-laugh half-cry as tears started to leak out of his eyes.

Sonic was surprised by this outburst from the normally apathetic hedgehog, but if he didn’t have much of a filter in his dreams, why would Scourge? He returned the hug, noticing that Scourge was definitely a couple inches shorter than him. “I got you, dude. I’m not gonna hurt ya, I promise.”

“Thank Chaos… Wait, what the fuck am I doing?!” he gasped, pushing himself away from Sonic. “You’re real!! And I just… Ah jeez,  _ please _ don’t remember that when you wake up,” he groaned, quickly wiping away his tears.

Sonic laughed. “No promises! But don’t worry about it, I won’t tell anyone. I know you work hard to keep up your ‘tough guy’ image.”

“Thanks,” the younger one sniffled, smiling a little bit.

“So,” the blue hog said as he looked around, hands on his hips, “what is this place?”

“I think it’s supposed to be like my parent’s house?” Scourge said softly, still shaken up. “It’s like some freakish nightmare hub. Every stinkin’ bad dream I’ve had for the past few months… they’ve all started here.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah… welcome to my twisted mind,” he grinned, trying to suppress a laugh.

“Oh Chaos you’ve been  _ waiting _ to use that one.”

“I mean, not that I ever thought the opportunity would fuckin’  _ present  _ itself, but… C’mon, I had to.”

“Hah. Okay, you angsty teen, you,” Sonic joked, giving him a nudge, before realizing, “Wait, yeah, you  _ are _ a teenager. You’re smaller than me, why is that?”

“Wha…? Oh… Ah shit, you’re right… I-I didn’t even notice,” Scourge stammered, just now noticing their height difference. He had to look up at him a little bit when talking. “I dunno man, dreams are weird like that.”

Sonic shrugged. “Maybe it’s ‘cause you feel vulnerable in here, or something?”

“I do not!” the green one insisted, when all of a sudden, a door opened a little ways down the hall. It creaked open slowly, and Scourge practically melted into a shivering puddle. He backed into Sonic, his eyes glued to the door.

Sonic had never seen him act like this. Whatever these nightmares were like, they must be really bad. “What’s happening?” he whispered.

“I dunno, it’s different every time… Shit shit shit shit shit…”

“Here.” Sonic took his hand, squeezing it tight. “This time’s different. This time, I got you.”

The lights started to flicker, and the door creaked open a little bit wider. It was pitch black inside, and the two hedgehogs could feel cold air rushing from it, like the door lead outside on a windy winter day.

“We should run,” Scourge gulped.

“Agreed,” Sonic said, taking off in the opposite direction of the door, pulling Scourge behind him. The two sped down the hallway, hand-in-hand, thankful that there were no obstacles or turns in their way. The continuously flickering lights were making it difficult to see. Doors started slamming open all around them as they ran, the cold darkness seeping out of them until it filled the entire hallway. The lights turned off entirely. Scourge yelped. Sonic nearly lost his hold on his hand for a moment, but was able to hold on as everything around them seemed to vanish.

When they could see again, they found themselves in a dark, gray room. It felt like a warehouse, just because of the cold, industrial feel it had. Cement floors, metal ceiling with exposed pipes and wires, cheap overhead lighting. It was small though, around the size of a living room. Nowhere to run. The lights above were buzzing and flickering. The two hedgehogs found themselves in the middle of the room, looking all around, hearts beating rapidly.

The small room had one door, and both pairs of eyes were drawn to it when it opened. In walked  _ Scourge-- _ normally aged, wearing old jacket and sunglasses,  _ Super _ Scourge.

Sonic was shocked. He knew this was a dream and all, but two Scourges? And this new one didn’t seem particularly friendly, judging from the pissed-off look in his black-and-red eyes. The real Scourge, still gripping his hand, looked scared to death.

“Well, lookie what we have here,” Super Scourge grinned maliciously, walking over to them. “Pipsqueak brought a friend along!” He slapped a hand on Sonic’s back, raising an eyeridge as he did so. His hand was cold, Sonic noticed-- not like ice, but definitely chilly enough to send a shiver up his spine. “Whoa, the real deal, huh? Looks like we got a live one! Oh Sonic, you are in for a  _ treat _ tonight!” The purple hedgehog laughed, giving the blue one a gentle couple of slaps on the cheek.

“Oh yeah?” Sonic asked, deciding to push his luck. “Mind if I ask what the main attraction is?”

“Oh, it’s something Little Scourgey here knows quite well,” the Super hedgehog smiled. He floated off the ground, grossing his legs at the ankles as the aura radiating off him grew a little stronger. “It’s a little something I like to call ‘Me Murdering all of his Friends and Loved Ones and Forcing Him to Watch as the Life Drains out of Their Eyes.’ Although, since we have a guest, I might have to turn up the heat a little. Whaddaya say?”

“I say, good luck tryin’ to lay a hand on anybody while I’m here!” Sonic growled.

Scourge whimpered and shook his head. “Blue, you… you can’t. I tried, ya can’t fight ‘im,” he said, his voice hushed.

“Greenie’s right,” the violet hedgehog smirked. In the blink of an eye, his hand was around Scourge’s throat, suspending him in midair. “I mean, it ain’t called a nightmare for nothin’.” He launched Scourge forcefully across the room, the green hog flying painfully into a pile of crates in one corner. “Of course,” Super Scourge said, looking right at Sonic with piercing red eyes, “you’re always welcome to try. C’mon, punch right through me. It tickles.” He turned his head to the side, letting his cheek be the perfect target.

Sonic looked back at the smashed boxes, relieved to see Scourge slowly climbing out of them. He turned his attention back to the apparent orchestrator of the nightmare. He took one step back, readying a kick. “Well, if you insist,” he said, face set in a scowl. He let a supersonic kick fly, nailing Super solidly in the side of the head.

Not expecting to feel  _ anything, _ Super Scourge was easily knocked across the room, landing hard on the floor. “WHAT THE  _ FUCK,”  _ he howled, clutching his head. Not only had he felt the kick, but it  _ hurt. _ He gritted his teeth, the dark aura around him bursting as his rage grew like a forest fire. “HOW. DID. YOU. DO THAT?!”

Sonic merely rolled his shoulder, cracking it, as he got into a loose fighting stance. “I don’t play by your rules. This may be a nightmare, but it ain’t mine.”

Scourge looked at his good twin in pure awe. While he himself had never been able to do anything in these dreams, Sonic was kicking his inner demons to the ground effortlessly. It was something he’d never thought possible.

The energy around Super crackled like electricity. “We’ll see about that,” he threatened, reaching one arm through the floor like it wasn’t even there. He pulled back up, dragging a struggling Tails by the throat.

The fox was bruised and battered, fighting to breathe. “Sonic!” He choked out, looking at his brother with a terrified expression.

Sonic tensed up. “I know he’s not real. You can’t trick me,” he said, trying his best not to appear shaking and to keep his eyes off Tails.

“He doesn’t need to be real,” Super Scourge said, squeezing hard on Tails’s neck. “I just gotta do this.” He took the fox in both hands and slammed him over his knee. There was a sickening crack, and Tails fell to the ground. Super kicked him hard in the ribs, which sent him tumbling and weakly moaning across the cement floor.

“Tails!” Sonic cried instinctively, and he resisted the urge to run over to his “brother’s” side. He gritted his teeth. He knew that this wasn’t real, but it  _ felt  _ real. If he wasn’t careful, he’d easily lose himself.

Behind him, Scourge was kicking the rest of the broken wood off of him, his eyes focused on Tails. Sonic held his hands out to the side, stopping Scourge from running over to the fox, and stopping Super from trying to hurt the green hedgehog again.

Super grinned. “You’re no fun, Sonic. Looks like I’ll have to turn up the heat, after all!”

The next thing they knew, everything was on fire. All of their friends were on the ground, bleeding and crying out for help. Sonic found it hard to breathe, both from the heat and the smoke, but also from the tight feeling in his chest. The blue hedgehog froze at the sight, unable to process what he was seeing, how all this happened. Even as Scourge kneeled down next the nearest friend he could find, panicking as his hands went right through them, Sonic struggled to move. Super Scourge floated in the middle of the room, laughing cruelly, but it was almost as if he were behind glass. The sound was distorted, and he looked blurry and faded. Far more tangible were the bodies of Sonic’s friends, all reaching out for him.

Sonic slowly moved towards Tails, unable to help himself. He was stuck in a weird limbo of being convinced that this was all real, and knowing that it wasn’t. Scourge, despite having been the one to tell him this was all a dream in the first place, now fully believed that everything he was seeing was real. It was easy for the green one to lose his senses and forget he was dreaming. He’d been through this so many times, had grown so tired of resisting it night after night. In comparison, Sonic’s mind was a much tougher nut to crack. This wasn’t his dream, so it was easier to distance himself from the events. But now his head was getting foggy, and the vision of his battered younger brother reaching out for him was too powerful for him to fight back.

Super Scourge seemed to vanish, everyone else fading from view as Sonic focused on getting to Tails. He felt like he was walking through molasses, even though everything around him was burning hot. The smoke that billowed around him was thick and soupy, slowing his movements. He walked across the small room, never reaching the opposite wall. Tails, continuously crying, never got any closer. Soon, everyone else was gone, too far away. It was just Sonic, the cruel mirage of his brother, and the tons of liquid smoke that pooled around his feet. His head grew foggier and foggier, and his view of Tails became blocked by smoke and fire. Sonic broke into a coughing fit, falling to his knees.

Instead of hitting the floor, he fell down, down into an ocean of smoke. It was dark and heavy, crawling into his lungs and dragging him downward. He could still faintly hear Tails’s cries, Scourge screaming, and Super Scourge still laughing. Sonic felt numb. Wanting to think but his mind too clouded, wanting to move but unable to find the strength. He didn’t know where he was. What was going on? He couldn’t remember how he’d ended up here, buried under black swirling nothingness. He knew there was something going on, someone he needed to protect… but who?

He coughed, the memories dislodging themselves and exploding into his mind. Scourge. This was Scourge’s dream, and he was getting lost in it. What was he doing? None of this was real. He needed to get out of here, he needed to get back to Scourge. He didn’t know how long he was gone for, but he needed to get back. “Scourge!” he cried out, eyes scanning the darkness for his friend. “Green, where are you? Scourge?” He tried to move towards the smoke, pushing himself in the direction the green hedgehog’s faint cries seemed to be coming from. Sonic didn’t expect to move at all, but after a while of struggling, the faint sounds seemed to grow louder, and the smoke less dense. Feeling more confident, he pushed harder, making more progress. The darkness surrounding him eventually faded away, leaving him back in the burning warehouse room once more.

Super Scourge was still there, still laughing, now joined by Smalls the Cat and a person Sonic had to assume was Scourge’s father. They circled around Scourge, who was kneeling defeated on the floor, pounding the words “It’s your fault” into his head over and over again. The mirages of their hurt friends lying on the ground had all stopped moving, succumbing to the flames.

Sonic’s presence hadn’t been noticed yet, so he took the opportunity to line himself up with the closest badguy. He sprinted forward, jumping up and homing attacking the back of Smalls’s head. The cat fell to the ground in front of Scourge, stunned, and Sonic landed on the far end of the broken circle. Everyone was fully aware of his presence now, to say the least.

Super Scourge screamed angrily, bursting into dark purple flame. He raised a fist, but Sonic came at him with a spinning double kick. His first leg connected with Super’s fist, and the second leg with his face, pushing him away. Jules tried to get a hand around Sonic’s neck as his feet came back down to the ground, but Sonic ducked down to the ground in time to avoid it. He slammed a fist upward into Jules’s chest, sending the older hedgehog stumbling back.

“Scourge, c’mon! Let’s get out of here!” Sonic said, reaching a hand down to the other hedgehog, who was still on the ground.

“No… No, I can’t… They’re all dead, it’s my fault, I killed them…” Scourge stammered to himself, head tilted down and tears streaming down his face. “They hate me now, they’re all dead and they all hate me…”

“No no no no, it’s okay. They’re not dead, they don’t hate you! It’s just a trick!” Sonic tried to comfort him, while also fending off the three tormentors who had gotten up and were coming for them. He curled into a spindash and knocked them all away in the blink of an eye. He landed next to Scourge, putting both hands on his shoulders. “None of this is real, buddy. It’s a nightmare, remember? You need to focus so we can get out of here.”

“A… a nightmare? No… No, this is all real, they’re all dead--”

“Scourge,  _ focus. _ Please.” Sonic tilted Scourge’s face up, and gritted his teeth as he realized the green one looked even younger than he did before. Being alone, scared, vulnerable like this… it was really messing with him. “It’s me, Sonic, remember? I’m real, like you are.”

Scourge grabbed onto Sonic’s hand with his own, reassured by its solidity and warmth. “Just a nightmare,” he whispered to himself, seemingly trying to make himself believe the words. His dad, Smalls, and Super Scourge were all getting up, hurting from Sonic’s hits on them but still willing to fight. “W-we gotta get outta here…!”

Sonic looked around the burning room, trying to see a way out. There were a set of double doors, but they were surrounded by fire. Good thing he had a solution for that. “Get down!” he hissed, waiting for Scourge to drop to the ground before he started to rev up in a furious spindash. He careened for the doors, the wind in his wake blowing the flames back. He cleared the way of fire, before turning around and launching himself towards Super Scourge once more. “Stay  _ down, _ jerk!” he shouted, pushing the violet hedgehog back but not knocking him over.

“I have had  _ enough _ of you!” Super yelled back, blasting him to the ground.

The wind got knocked out of him as he hit the floor hard. Super Scourge planted a boot on his chest, preventing him from easily getting back up. “Scourge, go! I’ll catch up!” the blue one said.

The younger hedgehog was understandably apprehensive about leaving his friend alone in this place. He backed towards the door, refusing to take his eyes off anyone. The back of his foot gently nudged Amy’s body, unmoving on the floor. “I-it’s just a nightmare, just a nightmare, none of this is real,” he stuttered to himself, a shiver shooting up his spine. He forced himself to move, needing to get out of there. He zipped over to the double doors, but hesitated going through without Sonic.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait for very long. Sonic breakdanced himself out from underneath Super Scourge, kicking the purple hog right in the jaw in the process. Not wanting to waste any time, the speedster scrambled to his feet, making a mad dash for the double doors. He picked Scourge up, tucking him under one arm, and blew through the doors like they  _ weren’t  _ hot, heavy metal.

They wound up back in the endless ornate hallway. While Scourge was still trying to process what was happening, Sonic moved the green hedgehog to his back, picked a direction, and started sprinting. Giving a piggyback ride was a lot easier and safer than carrying Scourge around like a rag doll.  _ ‘What the hell was that back there?!’ _ Sonic thought, finally having a free second to think about what they just went through. Scourge was having nightmares about seeing his friends’ dead bodies, and being told by some of worst enemies (and himself) that it was all his fault.  _ That _ certainly raised some questions about the green one’s mental state. Sonic had nearly succumbed to the dream himself, drowning alone in the smoke, unable to form a cohesive thought. He shuddered. He didn’t like not being in control of himself like that. Hopefully it wouldn’t happen again, and he’d be able to keep his cool.

“Oh Chaos they’re coming, they’re chasing us!” Scourge yelped as he glanced behind them. He wrapped his arms tighter around Sonic, trying not to shake.

The blue hedgehog, in response, sped up, moving through the hallway at a blistering pace. “How do we get out of here?”

“I don’t know! One time the hallway ended and there was a door, but that wasn’t the end of the dream! W-we’re trapped!”

“What about these other doors?”

“No, there’s never anything good behind them, they just get worse and worse and worse--”

“Hey, it’ll be okay. Don’t start freaking out on me, bud,” Sonic said, trying to come up with a plan. He couldn’t go back, and going forward wasn’t leading to anything new. The corridor never ended, never changed. The only options were the doors, which apparently, weren’t the most fun to explore. But maybe… so far, Sonic had been able to do things here that Scourge couldn’t. Fight back, remember that it was all just a dream. He wasn’t as affected. He glanced back for a second, seeing that Super Scourge was gaining on them, fast. “Hang on!” He pushed forward even more, trying to get a little extra time. He couldn’t outrun the Super hedgehog forever.

Once there was a big enough distance between them, Sonic ducked inside a door, slamming it shut behind him.

“No no no no no! What are you doing?!” Scourge yelped, squeezing his eyes shut. “What part of ‘doors are bad’ did you not understand?!”

“I… I think it’s okay,” the older of the two said, his voice hushed. He took a step away from the door, looking around. “It looks like the workshop in here.” Everything was there: the old beat-up couch, the tv, the shelves with music and video games. Sun was streaming in through the window, and the house felt cozy and warm. There were sounds of tinkering coming from the basement, filling the space with a comforting sound that indicated that Tails was down there.

Scourge took a peek at the room, still clinging to Sonic’s back. It did seem just like the workshop, and with nothing immediately trying to hurt him, he was able to relax a little bit. “I don’t trust it,” he murmured, quills bristling. Just because it was quiet now didn’t mean it would stay that way. He looked tentatively out the small window in the front door, and shied away when he saw Super Scourge banging on the door furiously. Inside though, the door wasn’t budging-- there was no indication that anyone was pounding on it at all. Maybe they  _ were _ safe, at least from outside attackers.

Sonic set the young Moebian down, carefully stepping and peering around the workshop. The place definitely felt dreamier than normal, less substantial, but that was to be expected, really. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. He padded over to the basement door, opening it up and looking down inside. Again, all normal. Lights on, dream-Tails sitting at his workbench, banging away at something. “Yo, Tails!” he called down.

The fox stopped working, pushing his goggles up on his forehead and looking up. “Sup, Sonic?”

The hedgehog sighed in relief. He half expected Tails to be hurt or dead or something, but he looked fine. “Uh, not much. Just gonna chill up here with Scourge for a bit until we wake up.”

“Alright, sounds good. Tell him I say hi, alright?”

“No prob, bud,” Sonic nodded. Tails went back to working, so he closed the door and stepped back into the living room. He walked slowly, still feeling a bit on edge, but starting to release some of the tension in his muscles. “Scourge? I think everything’s okay here,” he said, keeping his volume down. The peace of the workshop felt like it could easily be shattered.

Scourge was sitting on the couch, balled up in the corner, keeping the front door constantly in his peripheral vision. “It better be. I’m fuckin’ sick of this shit… I-I mean, look at me!” He stood up, drawing himself to his full height. He was nearly a head shorter than Sonic was, and his leather jacket hung limply off of him. “I’m gettin’ so freaked out, I’m pullin’ a fuckin’ Zonic here.” He held his head in his hands and plopped himself back down on the couch, Sonic joining him.

“Sorry,” the blue one sighed. “I guess... me being here is kind of a big-time invasion of privacy, huh?”

“Well, yeah. You’re in my  _ dream, _ you dick,” Scourge joked, finally feeling just a bit more at ease. “Then again, you  _ were _ able to fight off those jerks.  _ And  _ you got us here, someplace that’s… safe enough. I should probably be thanking you. This would’ve been a lot worse if you hadn’t crash landed in my brain.”

“Um… anytime?” Sonic shrugged. “Anyway, Tails is downstairs, he says hi. I told him we would just kind of chill here until we wake up.”

“Chaos knows when that’ll be. I only seem to wake up from these things when something terrible happens.”

“Something  _ worse  _ than what we just came from?”

“I guess. I dunno. Maybe if you hadn’t gotten me out of there, I would’ve just woken up then. Convinced that everyone was dead and it was all my fault. Pretty fuckin’ par for the course…” he pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs. “Gods, I’m so fuckin’ tired a’ this… I’ve been livin’ the good life for a couple months now, and it’s still hard for me to get a good night’s sleep. S’all I want.”

“Good thing we’re here in the workshop, then,” Sonic said, a smidge of a smile forming on his face. “We seem to be pretty safe here. We can just chill. Let you sleep soundly for once. Yeah?”

Scourge took a deep breath in and out. “Yeah.” He leaned back, letting himself rest against the back of the sofa. He kept one eye trained on the front door, and the windows next to it. Super Scourge, his father, and Smalls were all clawing at the doors and windows, screaming inaudibly. He may have been safe, but he was also trapped. He grimaced. Just looking at them was making him nervous. Remembering everything they did… everything he was afraid of… he could practically feel himself getting even smaller, more nervous.

“Don’t pay attention to them,” Sonic said, having followed Scourge’s gaze to the window. “They can’t get in, they can’t hurt you. They’re just trying to scare you.”

“Yeah, well, it’s workin’,” Scourge breathed, curling in on himself a little bit tighter.

The blue hedgehog frowned, standing back up again. He walked over to the windows, closing all the blinds one by one. The three aggressors stuck outside, still banging away, were now only blurry silhouettes. “There,” he said, nodding in satisfaction. He sat back down next to Scourge, who looked a bit more relaxed now that he couldn’t see them. “So, I get the deal with your dad and Smalls, but what’s with Super Scourge? I’m a little confused about him,” Sonic asked, crossing one leg as he sat down and letting the other dangle off the couch. He noticed Scourge squirm a little bit, trying to avoid looking at the curtains. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I’ve already invaded the hell out of your privacy, so I won’t pry.”

“I don’t… really wanna talk about him,” Scourge muttered, his fingers tightening around the sleeves of his too-big jacket. “I don’t wanna talk about any of ‘em. I just want ‘em to go away.”

“I dunno how much I can do about that, buddy,” Sonic sighed, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “They seem like they’re pretty tough. But I don’t think they can get in here, so we should be safe. If anything else bad happens, I’m gonna be here to protect you, yeah?”

“But back there… there was fire everywhere, and everyone was  _ dead, _ and… and I did it. It was my fault. A-at least, I thought I did it. And you were  _ gone.” _

“Because I was scared too. I forgot that this wasn’t real, just like you did. ‘Cause you were right, man, your dreams are freaky, and right now this feels real as hell. Seeing Tails and the others hurt back there… I knew it wasn’t real, but I didn’t care. It  _ felt _ real, and I was freakin’ terrified.” He shivered, pulling Scourge a little closer.

“... Really?” the younger hedgehog asked, looking up at him in disbelief.  _ “You  _ were scared?”

“Whuh-- yeah!! Of course I was, who wouldn’t be?!” Sonic practically laughed. “Dude, this shit is the worst. Worse than a lot of the nightmares I’ve had. And the fact that you’ve been living through these for months now? Don’t sell yourself short, Scourge. You’re tough as nails for dealing with this.”

“Y’call  _ this _ tough as nails?” Scourge pouted, looking down at himself. “The more scared I get, the smaller I get. And right now, I look like… Pft, I look younger than fuckin Little Blue.”

The blue hedgehog smiled a bit, remembering their adventure with his past-self. “Yeah, I guess you do. But there’s nothing wrong with being scared.”

“Yeah, but I get scared way more than you do,” Scourge said. He pulled his knees up closer to his chest, burying his face in them. “Like, the only times I’ve seen you get scared in real life… was when we saw the Time Eater destroying Mobius. And I guess a little bit when yer time powers were outta control an’ shit.”

“Well then, I guess I’m just good at hiding it, because I was scared a  _ lot _ more than that over the course of that whole adventure. And I get scared by other things too, not just the entire world coming to an end.” He looked down at Scourge, who was looking down at his small hands. His fingertips were poking out from the sleeves of his jacket, and the material was bunched up around his wrists and his elbow. He really  _ was _ small, a scared little kid beneath all the bravado and the tough-guy act. That wasn’t something that could be fixed with one impromptu amateur therapy session in one of his nightmares. Building his confidence would take time. “...Y’know something? You… actually remind me of Tails.”

Scourge scoffed, looking up at Sonic like the hero had just grown an extra head. “How the fuck am I like him? That kid is fuckin’ liquid sunshine, and I’m  _ definitely _ not.”

“When I found Tails,” Sonic said, his voice low, almost like he was telling a bedtime story, “he was scared out of his wits. He grew up on Westside Island, getting bullied all the time. He didn’t like other people, he didn’t like lightning... he was afraid of making anyone mad, and that lead to him being afraid of messing up. Kid was a little bundle of nerves. It was a miracle he even let  _ me _ help him out.”

He paused for breath when Scourge spoke just as quietly, “He’s still scared’a lightnin’. Doesn’t like storms…”

“Heh, yeah. He got better about all the other things, though,” Sonic smiled. “And I mean, he was just a kid. Little kids have an easier time adapting and changing and learning. So for you, it might take longer than it took him. So yeah, maybe you do feel scared a lot. But I think that won’t always be the case. I believe in you, bud.”

“... You do?”

“‘Course I do! You’re my friend, and you’ve come so far already. I think you can do anything,  _ including  _ facing your fears. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for, Scourge.”

“Heh… if you say so, Blue.”

“Well, I  _ do _ say so. So there.” Sonic stuck his tongue out at him, and Scourge leaned into his side to give him a shove. The kid started to laugh as Sonic gave him a noogie.

And then they woke up.

Scourge’s eyes fluttered open, quickly adjusting to the morning sun shining overhead. He was lying on his back, and his fingers grasped at the solid ground underneath him. He exhaled slowly, the gesture not as shaky as it usually was when he woke up from a nightmare. The dream still clung to his mind like cobwebs, fuzzing his mind and clouding up his thoughts. It was just a dream, it wasn’t real, but at the same time...  “Sonic,” he spoke, his voice raspy and thick. “Was that… did you--”

“Wind up in your dream last night? Yeah,” his friend replied, lying on the floor on the other side of their dying campfire. Sonic pushed himself up to a sitting position, the Chaos Emerald still in one of his hands. “That was… weird. Very, very weird.”

“How much do you remember?”

“Um… more than I usually remember when I wake up from something like that. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I uh… I think so.” The green one yawned, stretching out on the hard ground. “I feel like I actually got some rest for once… You?”

“I feel totally drained,” Sonic laughed, “but I’m also not used to having dreams like that. Plus, I guess I was sort of using the Chaos Emerald all night… Yeesh. I need a nap.”

“We just woke up.”

“Your point?”

Scourge snorted, and rubbed at his sleepy eyes with the back of his hand. “I guess… I should probably thank you. If you hadn’t hitchhiked on my dream train, that would have been way worse. Not that I appreciate you snooping around in my head or anything.”

“Sorry. Next time I’ll knock first.” Sonic slowly pushed himself onto his feet, letting loose a loud yawn. “Oh, Chaos… Yeah, not gonna try that again for a while… But I’m still glad I was able to help. It sucks that you always have to go through that alone. Now, what do you say we get outta here? I wanna get back to the workshop… sleep on an actual bed…” He trudged over next to Scourge, holding his hand out to him to help him up.

Scourge looked blankly at his hand, his mind still jumbled up and clouded. He lazily lifted up his arm, gently slapping Sonic’s hand rather than grabbing it. “Gimme a few minutes,” he said tiredly, dropping his arm back down at his side.

Sonic smiled, getting down onto his knees and then lying down next to him. “Sure thing.” He stretched his arms out over his head, grunting in satisfaction. They both needed a bit of a rest after all that had happened, even though they technically slept through the whole thing. As it turned out, sharing dreams was an exhausting experience, especially very personal dreams. Sonic was pretty used to getting up and moving around first thing in the morning, but today, all he wanted to do was move to his bed. He didn’t mind lying down for a little while longer.

“Hey… promise you won’t tell anyone what happened in my dream,” the green one quietly said. “They already know I got nightmares, I don’t need ‘em knowin’ any details.”

“You got it, boss,” Sonic said, closing his eyes.

The two hedgehogs relaxed quietly, each with closed eyes and just listening to the quiet sounds of Rail Canyon in the morning. Wind billowed around the mountains and valleys, the rails creaking and straining against the strong breeze. There was the distant cawing of large birds, the occasional huff of steam from machines that were still running. It was a rather quiet setting, which was just what they needed after such a wild and chaotic night. Sonic breathed slowly, in and out through his nose, his mind still trying to piece together everything that happened in Scourge’s nightmare. As was the case with most dreams, he didn’t remember all of it, and a lot of what he did remember was blurry or in the wrong order. He would’ve loved to ask Scourge more questions about it, to find out what everything meant, to find out how his friend was really doing. To find out if he really was just the frightened, lost child his subconscious portrayed him as. But those questions would be way too pressing and personal, and there wasn’t much Scourge hated talking about more than the things that scared him. He was just going to have to speculate by himself for now-- at least until Scourge opened himself up again.


	7. Happy Solstice

It was quiet. The station was practically empty, only the bare minimum number of Zone Cops occupying it that night. The sounds of the bustling city outside were dampened by the falling snow, making the office feel a little lonelier than usual. Some people had holiday music playing from inside their monitor stations, and the break room was filled with gingerbread cookies and an untouched fruitcake. There were a few conversations here and there about the quickly approaching holidays, but aside from that, the office wasn’t too energetic. Everyone was either mentally prepared to pack up and head home for the holiday week, or had accepted their fate and settled in to work the first night of the Solstice and new year celebrations.

Zonic was one of the ones itching to leave. He usually worked through most of the holiday, never having much in terms of plans. He was one of the few cops who never minded working through the season, so he generally wound up saddled with more work than most. But this year, he actually  _ did  _ have plans-- plans for the whole week, actually-- and he was still riding on the “I helped save the entire multiverse” wave, so Zlaze was still cutting him some slack in terms of work. Therefore, he’d been given a week and a half off, free to relax from the winter Solstice to New Year’s.

The normally hard-working Zone Cop found it nearly impossible to concentrate on the work that sat in front of him. He was at his monitor station, supposed to be keeping an eye on the Sonics of the multiverse, but his mind was excitedly wandering this way and that. He fiddled with the Chao in Space toy on his desk, the one he’d gotten at the beach over the summer. It had been a while since he spent a full day on Mobius Prime, like he had when he won the toy on the boardwalk. But now, he was going to be spending more than a week there, and he couldn’t wait.

It was good that he had all that time off, since he wouldn’t be able to go back and forth between his home zone and Mobius until the holidays were over. With how busy the year had been, yearly maintenance on the cosmic highway had been delayed and delayed and delayed until it had to be done at the end of the year. Aside from the unfortunate workers who were detailed to that job, the timing worked out pretty well: he was really the only No Zoner would would be going off-world. Everyone else would be staying home, and the on-duty cops could navigate the cosmic highway manually if they needed to get to a different zone. Zonic smiled. Once he was on Mobius, they couldn’t call him back until the holidays were over. He was  _ really _ going to have some time off.

His mind was running over an extensive mental checklist of things to pack for his prolonged stay from home. He leaned back in his seat, feet resting on the edge of his desk and his Commander Chaoko figure twirling in his fingers. He was forcing himself not to look at Sonic’s or Scourge’s monitors, just in case they were still wrapping presents. He wanted everything to be a surprise. It had been so long since he’d had a  _ real _ Solstice. With his parents, the holiday had been big, boisterous, and full of presents and great food. When it was him and Zails, they kept the celebration smaller, but it still felt just as festive and warm and fun. But after his parents disappeared, and Zails was killed… he just never had much energy for the holiday anymore. He still liked it, but he could never quite get as excited for it as he used to. He would exchange presents with the others on his squad, he’d share a big meal with Zector and Zespio, but that was really about it. The season had kind of lost its magic for him.

He felt different this year, though. Early on, Sonic and Tails had invited him and Scourge over, saying they wanted to spend the holiday as a family. Zonic had accepted without a second thought, and immediately went about shopping for presents and digging through his parents’ old cookbooks in search of elusive cookie recipes. For the first time in a long time, he’d be spending the new year with a whole bunch of his friends/family, and he wouldn’t have to even think about work (as much as he loved his job, it could get exhausting). He couldn’t wait.

ooo

Scourge was wandering aimlessly through the busy streets of Station Square, his hands tucked inside the pockets of his miserably thin leather jacket. He really needed to get something more suitable for the winter, instead of just layering it with whatever hoodies he owned. A good coat would be expensive though. He sort of missed the days when he could just bust into a store and steal stuff.

It was snowing. Not heavily enough that it stung his face or caused an actual problem, but it was sticking to the pavement and clinging to his short fur. As he brushed some of the powder out of his quills, Scourge thought about maybe investing in a hat, like a beanie or something. His quills were short enough to tuck inside a hat, anyway. Not like they’d regrown much in the past six months.

Damn, it had really been six months, hadn’t it? Or, five really, since the whole Time Eater thing ended early in July. But still, that was a long time. A long time for him to be a good guy, a long time for him to have friends. Every day a tiny piece of him expected to just wake up and be back in Zone Jail, like this had all been one elaborate dream. But no, this was real. He had real friends. Chaos, it was  _ still _ sinking in for him. Maybe he’d never get used to it. Maybe someday, the giddy butterflies he got in his stomach whenever he remembered that simple fact would fade. Not today, though. Today they were in full force.

For the first time in… ever, he was going to have a good holiday. He was going over to Sonic and Tails’s place for the Solstice, and Zonic would be there too. Usually, he just celebrated the end-of-the-year holidays by drinking, either by himself or with Fiona. Last year, while he was in prison, he got a punch in the nose as a Solstice gift. And the holidays he’d spent with his parents while they were still around… They weren’t good, to put it in simple terms. Other terms he’d use to describe it included formal, fake, stuffy, impersonal, and overall miserable.

That wouldn’t be the case this year, he hoped. He knew it would be just fine, that it would be great, but after so many mediocre or downright bad holidays he’d had in the past, it was hard to blame him for keeping his hopes down.

He pushed through a crowd of people on the sidewalk, everyone walking slowly and taking up all the space.  _ ‘Damn humans, why they gotta be so tall… And why the hell is everyone so slow?! Don’t they got places to be? It’s freezin’ out!’  _ he thought bitterly. Of course, he didn’t exactly have anywhere to be at that moment, but that was besides the point. He at least had a motive behind wandering around, and it was having itchy feet from being stuck inside his apartment for too long. As far as he knew, very few people aside from him and his good twin got that kind of wanderlust, so he wondered what the deal was.

A gap in the crowd allowed him a glimpse of the view across the street. Seemingly by accident, he’d wandered near one of the most popular plazas in the city, which was currently adorned by its annual holiday light display.  _ ‘Great, it’s a fuckin’ tourist trap,’ _ Scourge thought as the humans, twice his height, bumped into him and jostled him around without so much as an apology.  _ ‘Why are these people even here? It’s just some lights. It’s not even fuckin’ dark out yet!’  _ He growled low in his throat, keeping his shoulders squared and his head down so he could plow through the crowd. He would really have to pay closer attention to where he was walking from now on. Station Square was hard to get lost in, but it was easy to wind up somewhere without meaning to.

Not breaking completely free from the crowd, but finding a spot where it had thinned a bit, Scourge managed to push his way through to get to the nearest building. He boosted his way up the structure, using the signs, windows, and a couple external pipes and gutters as leverage, and he managed to scamper up to the top. He was now about fifteen stories up, where the air was colder and the wind was harsher. There were no people up there though, so it was overall more favorable.

He took a breath in and out, happy to be out of the sea of people. That was one of the bad things about living in a popular city. The place got jam-packed, especially over the course of the past month. He liked Station Square for the most part, but getting bombarded on all sides like that was a definite turn-off.

The hedgehog looked over the side of the roof, to the light display across the street that was attracting so many. It wasn’t even lit yet, since the sun still had a little time before it went down. Begrudgingly, he admitted that it would probably look spectacular all lit up. While the angle he was at was too high to be a perfect vantage point, it was still better than being on the ground. Maybe he’d come back and check out the lights later that week. After all, today was only the start of the holidays. Celebrations were generally happening from Solstice eve all the way up to new year’s day. He’d have time.

Scourge absentmindedly crunched the thin layer of snow under his feet as he stood and looked out over the edge. The snow was fresh, but still had enough frosty bite to it that it was satisfying to step on. He stepped back from the edge and looked at the snow at his feet, nudging it into a pile with his toes. His thoughts quieted, his distance from the street and from the people below letting him calm down.

_ ‘Tomorrow’s the first day of winter, and there’s gonna be snow on the ground for it. Nice. Can’t remember the last time that happened… Fuck, probably not since I was a kid.’  _ He frowned. Those weren’t the most pleasant of memories he wanted to go digging around in at the moment. No matter how shitty his childhood was, it  didn’t matter, not this year. This year was looking like it would be a good one. Well, at least by the time he went over to the workshop it would be. Right now, just killing time in the city, it felt like a lot of his not-so-great past years. Just… underwhelming. For the time being.

Clearly, he needed to kill time more efficiently and excitingly. He smirked, glancing across the varied rooftops. A run across the whole city and back should do the trick.

ooo

The workshop was busy as a factory, loud and warm and full of smells. Sonic and Tails were working themselves to the bone, in a mad rush to get all the food done. They had probably  _ too _ many dishes planned, but the worst case scenario was that they would have leftovers, so they decided to go for it. The two brothers were attempting to juggle two different kinds of pasta, chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, chili dogs, fried zucchini and jalepenos and artichokes and mac and cheese, and not to mention cookies. They hadn’t initially planned to make so much food, but they had gotten more and more excited as the date got closer and closer, and they kept coming up with more ideas. They wanted to make sure they had enough food, and they also wanted the meal to be special for their guests.

While he was digging out ingredients, Tails took a peek outside the window at the snow falling down. The sun had recently set, and the gentle snow that had been falling all day was picking up. The flakes blew wildly around the window, and the snow was really starting to collect on the ground. All the grass was completely covered now, not even the tips poking out under the blanket of white. “Snow’s getting worse,” the fox commented, loud enough over the music they had blasting for Sonic to hear him. “When do you think it’ll let up?”

The hedgehog set down what he was doing and joined his little bro at the window. “Dunno. Those clouds still look pretty heavy up there,” he said, his breath fogging up the glass. “Scourge said he was on the train here, so it shouldn’t be long ‘til he shows up.”

“Good. I’m not sure how much longer the trains are going to be running in this weather. Plus, I can’t imagine that a ton of people want to head out to Mystic Ruins on Solstice Eve.”

“True. At least we don’t have to worry about Zonic, what with his teleporting and all… Eh, whatever, it’ll be fine,” Sonic shrugged, stepping away from the window. “We’ve had snow like this before, we’ll live. C’mon, these potatoes won’t start themselves, pal.”

ooo

When Scourge showed up at the workshop, he didn’t even bother knocking. He just barged right in, the door left unlocked since the brothers were home. He didn’t have much snow on him, having sprinted down from the train station right up to their door, but the top of his head was still dusted with snow and his boots were caked with it. “It’s cold as shit out!” he announced loudly, slamming the door shut behind him. “The snow just keeps getting worse, the fuck is the deal?”

“That’s generally how storms work!” Sonic yelled from the kitchen. The blue hedgehog poked his head out into the living room and smiled slyly. “Good to see ya, man. Now take your shoes off, because if you track snow in this house I swear to Chaos Tails is actually going to murder you.”

“I’m holding the big knife! Don’t tempt me!!” the fox shouted.

Scourge barked out a laugh as he kicked his shoes off, leaving them by the front door. He brushed off his leather jacket but kept it on, still feeling chilled. “‘Ey, what’s cookin’? Because whatever it is, it smells surprisingly decent,” he chuckled.

_ “I just said not to tempt me!!” _ Tails yelled again, and Sonic laughed.

“It’s not so hard to cook when you have a recipe in front of you, y’know,” the speedster rolled his eyes. “Thanks, though. We got the potatoes in right now, everything else we’ll start once Zonic gets here. S’mostly fried food and pasta, and that doesn’t take too long once all the prep is done.”

Scourge nodded, looking content as he sock-shuffled through the living room and into the kitchen with the others. The room was hot and loud, the oven blazing and the holiday music blasting through Sonic’s boombox. The blue hedgehog turned the volume down a bit so they could talk over the music without shouting. Tails smiled evilly at Scourge as he entered, holding the knife in his hands so the light glinted off it. It was indeed big, and currently being used to chop vegetables.

Now that he was warming up from the bitter cold outside, Scourge started to loosen and smile. The workshop was welcoming, and his previous thoughts of  _ fuck all this snow _ and  _ dear Chaos please let this holiday actually be good this year, haha, but seriously,  _ melted away, replaced by the upbeat music and the powerful smells and the heat of a busy kitchen.

It was then that he remembered that he was holding a plastic bag, so he placed it on the counter and started removing its contents. “Brought some eggnog. Non-alcoholic, of course,” he said, winking at Sonic, even though Tails was the only one who was actually underage. “And… in case you  _ want _ it alcoholic…” He pulled out three bottles of rum after the eggnog, a mischievous grin on his face.

Sonic laughed, taking the eggnog bottle. “Looks like someone’ll be getting drunk tonight, because I’m pretty sure the only one who’ll be drinking is you.”

“Z might. He’s usually a good sport,” Scourge shrugged. “What about you Tails, you gonna try some?”

“I dunno if you know how to count, but I’m still a few years away from being legal,” the fox snarked at him, smiling as he returned to his chopping.

“Who’s gonna know?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the cop we’re inviting to stay over until new years?”

“... He doesn’t count,” Scourge sarcastically backpedaled. “He’s Zonic, he won’t do shit and you know it. ‘Sides, we’re in the house. S’not like I’m takin’ you out to a bar or nothin’,” he said, leaning his elbows up on the counter, one of his fingers running along the label on one of the rum bottles.

Sonic rolled his eyes. “Is this how you convinced Tails to play beer pong with you that one time?”

“I didn’t even try to get him to drink that time! I gave him fuckin’ soda!” Scourge gave Sonic a little shove in the arm. “But fine, if you guys won’t drink, that’s just more fer me.”

“Ah jeez, that’ll be fun,” Sonic said, picking up a dish towel from the counter by the sink and throwing it at him. “C’mon. Before you get plastered, at least help us out. We got stuff to clean.”

Scourge caught the towel in one hand and sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Chaos forbid the weary traveler get to rest,” he said sarcastically as he walked over to the sink. Sonic and Tails weren’t nearly done prepping the food yet, but the fox liked to clean as he went so the kitchen didn’t get  _ too _ dirty. It was the complete opposite of the way he worked in the lab downstairs, but hey, at least cleaning dishes was a job Scourge could do without any trouble. 

The three worked in the kitchen for a while, chatting and catching up as they did so. It was nice, just all of them hanging out in the workshop with no imminent threats or big plans for the day. Even though they kept busy, it still felt nice and casual in the workshop. It hadn’t really hit Scourge until he had warmed up and calmed down a little bit, but being in the workshop again… he just felt like he was home. He spent a lot of time here during the summer, but he hadn’t really swung by since Tails’s birthday, and the house felt exceptionally cozy in the winter. The lighting was warm and soft, and there was the beginnings of a fire gently crackling in the fireplace. Not that Scourge would ever admit it to the others, but he really did feel more at ease here.

Before very long, they heard a  _ zoop!  _ from the living room, and through the door they saw the furniture bathed in an orange light. It looked like their party was about to be complete. Zonic twisted himself through the sideways portal, and several  _ THUNKs  _ could be heard as he dragged his luggage through. “Happy Solstice!” he shouted in between tugging his bags. He was met with a chorus of greetings from the kitchen, everyone too busy to leave their posts but beckoning him in anyways. They could hear the portal closing, and a few seconds later Zonic stepped into the room where they could see him.

“Eyy, there he is!” Sonic cheered with a smile, motioning with his head for Zonic to come in.

“Hey guys!” the cop waved, a wide grin on his face. “Woah, Tails, did you get taller?”

“Uh… did I?” the fox wondered aloud, standing to his full height.

Sonic’s eyes went wide. “So it’s not just me then? I’m not goin’ crazy? ‘Cause I  _ swear _ this kid shot up a few inches since his birthday!”

“Looks like it,” Z nodded. “Yeah Prime, he’s catching up to you.”

Tails looked content with this news, while Sonic looked devastated. “I knew this day would come, but…  _ this soon?”  _ he whined, as if Tails being almost as tall as him was a national crisis. He turned to the fox, putting a hand on his head. “I’m already the shortest guy in our friend group as it is. Besides you, bud, I think the only person shorter than me is Cream. It’s not fair!”

“Yes it is,” Tails scoffed. “I’m a fox, you’re a hedgehog. Canines are generally bigger than rodents, bro.”

“And  _ now _ you call me  _ rodent.  _ What have I done to receive such scorn, from both my own brother and from the universe itself?” he moaned. “When I was fifteen, I  _ stopped _ growing. You shouldn’t be allowed to have any more growth spurts.”

“I’ll make you some high-heeled sneakers, how about that?” the fox laughed. “I’ll get you some like Blaze has.”

“Don’t mock me, Tails.”

“What’s the big deal?” Scourge asked, leaning up against the kitchen table. “We’re not  _ that _ short, are we?”

“Yeah we are,” Zonic chuckled. “I dunno, I’m not really bothered by it that much.”

“That’s ‘cause your zone cop boots have heels on ‘em,” Sonic huffed. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed, you’re taller than me when you’re in uniform.”

“Prime, the heels are like, less than an  _ inch.  _ I doubt it’s much of a noticeable difference.”

Tails was chuckling now, looking at his brother in disbelief. “Since when are you so sensitive about your height?”

“When everyone started getting taller than me!” Sonic yelped defensively. “Zonic, c’mon, get over here. We’re measuring.”

“Oh Chaos, how can I be taller than you?! We’re the same person!” Z laughed, but walked over all the same. The two blue hedgehogs stood back to back, Zonic removing his shoes so it would be fair, as Scourge and Tails stood back to look.

“Oh shit,” Scourge said, sounding impressed. His eyes widened, and his lips pursed. “Is-- Is Z actually taller?”

Tails got right up next to them, using his hand to compare. “I think so. Not by much, but--”

“WHAT?!” Sonic shrieked, recoiling away. “How?! He’s  _ me!!” _

Tails gave him a pat on the head, serving up a patronizing smile. “Well, it’s not like you ate your milk and drank your vegetables as a kid. You were sorta undernourished.”

Scourge snorted, a huge grin breaking out across his face.  _ “Eat your milk and drink your vegetables??  _ T, you didn’t start drinkin’ without me, didja?”

“What? I don’t-- crap, did I say it backwards?”

The three hedgehogs all nodded, laughing at the failed phrasing. Tails chuckled too before getting back to chopping whatever he had been chopping before Zonic arrived. Sonic, laughing but still salty, picked up a spare apron and tossed it at the Zone Cop’s head, bonking him gently in the noggin with it. He turned the music back up as Z unfurled the apron and slipped it on over his head. After all, there was still plenty of work to do, and they needed all hands on deck in the kitchen.

Scourge was still stationed at the sink, washing and drying utensils, bowls, and plates as they came in. He didn’t mind-- it wasn’t like he was much good as a chef anyway. His eyes wandered outside the window once or twice. He struggled to see anything outside because of the glare of the lights, but he could tell it was snowing even more heavily than before. The snow was really starting to pile up, and he wondered when it would stop.

And then the lights all went out.

“Um,” Tails squeaked, shoulders stiff as he looked around, “that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“What  _ did  _ happen?” Zonic asked, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He used the light from the screen as a flashlight to see around the pitch black room. The only other light came from outside, the faint starlight being reflected in the thick layer of snow on the ground.

“I guess the storm knocked out the power, but… our backup generator should have kicked in by now.” The fox cupped his hands against the window, trying to get a better look outside to the back of the house. Luckily, his night vision was decent enough that he could faintly make out the shape of the generator outside. Well, he could see where the generator  _ should’ve _ been. Instead, there was just a deep pile of snow, and a toppled down palm tree. “Aw jeez,” he muttered, his breath fogging up the glass. “RIP generator. We barely knew ye.”

“Aw, what?” Sonic cringed, trying to see outside for himself. “... Is that a tree?”

“Yep.”

“On top of our generator?”

“That’s what I implied by saying it was dead, yes.”

“So what yer sayin’ is,” Scourge grumbled, already zipping up his leather jacket, “we’re stuck here in the middle of nowhere, it’s the fuckin’ snowstorm of the century, and we got no power?” Everyone just turned to look at him, not really giving a direct answer. They all knew the answer, anyway. The green hedgehog groaned. “Shit. Well, ain’t this just peachy. Z, can’t you portal us outta here or somethin’?”

Zonic shook his head. “Nope, not while the cosmic highway is under construction. I used up my last legal ‘port to get here. Sorry.”

“Oh, no problem. We’ll just freeze to death, is all. No big deal.”

“Scourge,” Sonic rolled his eyes, “we’re not gonna freeze to death. We’ve got firewood in here, and we have plenty of coats and blankets. We’ll be fine, and once the storm passes, then Tails can go out and do repairs on the generator. We just gotta last the night, s’all.”

“You just make it sound so easy,” Scourge humphed, curling his lips into a snarl. Not that it was visible to anyone else, but still.

“What, you can’t handle a little cold?”

“I can handle it just fine, Blue! I ain’t some delicate flower.” He snickered, “it’s you I’m worried about.”

Zonic cleared his throat, stepping between the two. “Yeah, I’m gonna stop you two right there,” he said, holding his hands out to his sides. “I can see where this is going, and we don’t need this becoming a “who can last longer in the freezing cold” competition.”

Sonic raised his brows and pursed his lips. “I dunno, sounds like a good idea to me. Because I could totally outlast rich-boy over here. I kinda grew up outside.”

_ “Excuse me?!  _ I’ve spent way more time on the streets than you have!” Scourge shouted, pushing Zonic out of the way so he could yell directly into Sonic’s face. His rival simply shrugged.

“Yeah, but how much time have you spent in Ice Cap Zone? Or Ice Paradise? White Acropolis? Oh yeah, I think it’s  _ none.” _

“Yeah, and you grew up on a tropical island.”

“Alright, so you wanna settle this then?”

“Alright. You. Me. Outside. No coats. First one to wuss out and go inside loses.”

“Deal.” Sonic smirked, shaking his double’s hand as Tails and Zonic groaned.

“Chaos,” Tails whined, his face buried in his hands. “They’re going to kill themselves. Happy freakin’ holidays.” Zonic just shook his head silently in disbelief, regretting that he ever said anything.

ooo

Sonic had been out in the cold before. He’d run through countless snowy mountains, and he’d never had a coat then. He didn’t think parking himself out in the snow for an extended period of time would be a walk in the park, but he had a feeling he could handle it.

Now all he was feeling was the goosebumps on his arms and the bitter cold assaulting him like needles.

The snow came up roughly to his waist, so within only a minute his legs were numb and his feet were hurting from the cold. His toes felt like ice cubes, and the snow that sneaked into his shoes didn’t help matters. His fur was all standing on end, and some of the shorter ones were starting to feel a little frosty, bristling his neck and his arms. His nose felt frozen, his eyes were dry, the tips of his ears burned.

He looked over at Scourge, who was standing next to him. The green hedgehog was in a similar state, his hands crammed into his armpits and his legs desperately trying not to shake. He looked practically naked without his leather jacket on, the numerous small scars on his body visible to the world before they got covered up by the falling snow.

“M-Maybe this was a b-b-bad idea,” Sonic shouted over the wind, shivering harder than a plucked guitar string. “You ready to go in yet?”

“N-n-not even close,” Scourge barked, not turning to look at him. He was instead staring at the house, trying to absorb the dim light coming from the inside. Through the vicious snow, they could just make out the flickering of the fire in the fireplace, they could almost feel the heat and taste the warm food that was still cooking inside. It was tantalizingly close, the only thing stopping them being their pride.

The wind howled, a high-pitched whine in their ears as the cold cut through them like butter. The snow blew around them with the force of a tornado, whipping around and pelting their faces.

Sonic raised his hand and rubbed at his face, his joints creaking as if they were completely frozen through. They couldn’t keep this up forever, but he also couldn’t let Scourge win only two minutes into their bet. His breath puffed up like a cloud in front of him, the hot air crystallizing and quickly melting away. The icy air clawed at his throat as he breathed, ripping his insides to ribbons. He’d been this cold before, but he’d always been moving. It was easier when he was focused on running, when his movements kept him warm. Just standing around at the mercy of the snow and the wind was way worse.

“Chaos,” Scourge wheezed, “I can f-feel this shit seepin’ into my boots. Now I got wet socks.”

“Yeah, this sucks,” the blue one agreed. He breathed on his hands, trying to warm them up.

They heard a loud  _ CRACK! _ coming from close by, and both hedgehogs jumped and spun around to try and see where it came from. There was a loud rustling and a dull crash, shaking the powdery ground beneath their feet.

“Was that another tree?!” Scourge yelped, his voice hoarse from the cold.

“... W-what do we win for stayin’ out here again?”

“We never d-d-decided. Bragging rights?”

“Yeah, hell no, I’m goin’ inside,” Sonic laughed, trudging back through the deep snow to the front door.

“That means I win!” Scourge exclaimed, though he followed directly behind him. The small rut which they’d dug into the snow when they had come out had mostly filled in, so they had to fight and climb through the snow again to get through the short distance to the front door.

They both slipped and slid up the steps, gripping onto one another for balance. They fell against the door, collapsing into the house and landing in a pile on the ground, bringing a good amount of snow inside with them.

Zonic slammed the door shut behind them, struggling against the pounding winds, and complaining under his breath. “Two and a half minutes. You idiots happy? Gods, if you’ve given yourselves hypothermia out there, all over a stupid bet… I swear, I’m going to kill you both.”

Scourge coughed, the sudden rush of warmer air making him shake and causing his frozen fingers and ears to burn up. “... I won,” he gasped through chattering teeth.

“Ehhh I dunno,” Tails shrugged. He was sitting near the fire, his hands balled up in the sleeves of his jacket. “Looks like you both came in at the same time to me.”

“F-f-fuck no!” he protested, pushing himself up and climbing off of Sonic, whose face looked almost as blue as his fur.

“It’s a little chilly outside,” Sonic said, shakily brushing some of the snow off of his shoulders. “Oh, and an-n-nother tree went down.”

Tails sighed. “Yeah, we heard it. Palm trees really aren’t cut out for this much snow. Or, any snow, really.” He got to his feet and started to walk over to them, eyeing the pile of snow they brought in with them disapprovingly. “Here, let me help you two wipe off before you drip all over the house.”

Once the snow was all cleaned up, Sonic and Scourge got as close to the fire as they could, each buried in blankets and coats. Tails had given them a ‘get along comforter,’ wrapping them both up in it and forcing them to share its warmth. They initially complained about it, Scourge especially, but the warmth it provided was too great to pass up. He and Sonic swallowed their pride and stopped their bickering, conceding to share the thick blanket that had been draped over their shoulders.

As they were warming themselves back up, Zonic and Tails were gathering all the blankets and sheets from the bedrooms and the closet upstairs. With the fire roaring in the fireplace, every other room in the house felt freezing by comparison, so it only made sense to just stay in the one room. Soon, the couch was loaded up with blankets, pillows, and old sweatshirts, all ready should they be needed.

“So it’s damn freezing upstairs,” Z said as he set down the last armful of blankets. “Tails is suggesting we all sleep down here tonight by the fire.”

“Fine by me,” Sonic said, tugging the comforter up tighter around his chin. “Not like I plan on moving anymore tonight anyway.”

“Yeah, I’m officially sick of winter, and it doesn’t technically even start until tomorrow,” Scourge grumbled. He was trying to burrow deeper into the warm pile of blankets he was under, but he couldn’t really do that without snuggling closer to Sonic, which he didn’t really want to do. Just because Tails had called it a “get along comforter” didn’t mean he had to like it. He was really starting to get fed up with the cold.

“Guess that settles that, then,” Zonic shrugged. He pulled a chair over close to the fire, sitting down with his legs crossed underneath him and his hands stuffed into the sleeves of his sweater. “Camping in the living room it is, then.”

“Yeah… sorry Z,” Sonic chuckled. “I feel bad, we invite you over for the week and then this happens, and you’re basically stuck here with us ‘til New Year’s.”

“No, it’s okay!” the No Zoner said. “It’s not like this is your fault or anything, I don’t even mind. Besides, I like being here.”

“Aw, well we like havin’ you here, pal!”

“Chaos, you two are saps,” Scourge rolled his eyes. “If yer gonna keep goin’ like this, I need a drink. Be right back,” he said, exiting the warmth of the blankets and shuffling into the kitchen, where he had left his bottles of eggnog and rum.

“Pft, like he’s not a sap too when he wants to be,” Sonic snorted.

A minute later, Scourge came back, followed by Tails, who was holding a flashlight. "Alright, so the stovetop runs on gas and not electricity, so we can still use it even without power," the fox said. "So we might not be able to cook everything we wanted to, but since almost all of the prep is already done, we can still get some warm food going."

"Sweeeeet," Sonic smiled up at him. "I'm starving after all that work we did today."

"Oh, good!" Zonic said. "You going to need any help in there?"

"Yeah, actually. How about we finish up the food and then play a board game or something? Something low-tech?" the fox asked.

Scourge sipped the drink in his hands, leaning against the door frame to the kitchen. "Do you even have anything low-tech in this joint?"

“Uh…” Sonic thought for a moment. “Monopoly and books.”

“Oh man,” Zonic shook his head. “I don’t know if the four of us can survive a game of Monopoly. You two can’t even talk about the weather without turning it into a competition.”

Sonic grinned slyly. “Is that… a challenge?”

Z’s head shook even more furiously. “No, no,  _ Chaos _ no--”

“Tails!” the speedster said, standing up with his blankets draping all around him. “You get that food on the stove, I’ll try and find Monopoly.  _ We’re doing this.” _

Zonic groaned loudly, slumping down in his seat. Scourge laughed as Sonic sped upstairs to begin his hunt. “Z, you sure you don’t want any nog, bro? I have a feelin’ I’m gonna have to down a lot of it to survive this.”

“... Get me a glass.”

“WOO! Aw yeah, let’s get the party started!  _ Now  _ it’s Solstice, haha!”

ooo

One board game hunt, a small but hot dinner, and several drinks later, they all sat around the coffee table in the living room, close to the roaring fire, Monopoly spread out in front of them. They’d been playing for about an hour now, all the properties had been bought up, and houses were being built. To everyone’s chagrin, Scourge was winning handily.

“Welcome welcome welcome, to Bumfuck Island!” the green hedgehog laughed maniacally as Sonic landed on one of his properties.

“Okay, I have three questions,” the heroic speedster said calmly, his eye twitching. “One. Why did you feel the need to rename all of the properties you own? Two. Why did you decide they all should be brothels? And three. Why Bumfuck Island?!”

“They’re not all whore houses, y’know,” Scourge said defensively, shrugging his shoulders. “One’s a high-class Italian restaurant.”

“Which is the front for a brothel called the Spicy Meatball,” Sonic rolled his eyes.

“It’s what the customer wants,” the slightly-drunken hedgehog reasoned. “Now pay up, Blue.”

“Fine, how much do I owe ya?”

“For one quality bumfucking, that’ll come to… $750.”

_ “I don’t want a quality bumfucking!” _

“Well, you shouldn’t have come to Bumfuck Island.”

“Scourge,” Zonic said, interrupting their business negotiations. “Are you doing this just to see how many times you can get Sonic to say the word ‘bumfuck’?”

“Yes. Yes I am.”

“Okay, just checking,” the cop nodded. “Continue.”

_ “Z!!” _ Sonic shrieked, as the No Zoner started laughing. “You traitor! Get him to stop!”

“Hmm, not sure if I want to,” Zonic smirked. The Prime Zoner seethed in rage.

“I thought you people were my friends,” he said angrily, shaking his head as he counted his money. He barely had enough to cover the rent. He slammed the bills down in front of Scourge, who picked them up and began counting. He had a huge grin on his face.

“Thank you for your patronage,” he said, extremely satisfied. “We hope to see you again soon. Oh, and you rolled doubles dude. Go again.”

“Alright, fine,” Sonic groaned, rolling the dice again. He hoped he didn’t land on another heavily-upgraded property, he didn’t have the money to pay the rent. He moved his piece ahead and… “Oh no.”

“Welcome welcome welcome to Bumfuck Bayjou! Would you like the classic bumfucking, or our specialty Jambalaya Jamboree?”

“AAHHHH!!!!!”

“I’ll take that as a yes. One Jambalaya Jamboree, comin’ right up!” Scourge laughed. Sonic screamed, stood up, threw all of his paper money at Scourge, and left the room.

“So,” Tails said, collecting the dice. “I guess that means it’s my turn.”

 

The game lasted a painfully long time. Between Tails’s cunning, Zonic’s tactical planning, and the fact that  _ no one in their right mind wanted to land on Scourge’s properties, _ they were evenly matched. Eventually, Tails was declared the winner, partially due to the fact that he never once had to utter the name of one of Scourge’s more colorful properties.

The game was soon packed up and tucked away, no one wanting to touch it again for a long while. It wasn’t terribly late, but the lack of light was causing the four to become drowsier than they would be otherwise. That, and the warm blankets definitely helped. The alcohol that the two alternate dimension hedgehogs were drinking played a hand too, though Scourge was definitely drinking more.

“Man,” Sonic said with a yawn. “Normally I have no problem staying up til midnight. That’s when Tails and I usually do presents. But that was exhausting.”

Scourge suddenly coughed and sputtered on his drink, quickly setting the glass down and fighting to compose himself. “Shit,” he wheezed. “I totally fuckin forgot, I’m such an  _ idiot!” _

“Forgot what? Presents?” Sonic asked.

“Yeah… Forgot that was even a thing people did,” the green one said, tilting his head away from the others. “I mean, this… may or may not be my first  _ real _ Solstice. I’m a little rusty.”

“Ah, don’t sweat it, dude. It’s cool.”

“It ain’t cool! Aren’t presents, like, a big part of this whole thing?” Scourge asked, his voice raised and sounding stressed. His brow was deeply furrowed, and his fingers squeezed tight around his mug of spiked eggnog. “Chaos, this is  _ basic shit,  _ I should  _ know _ this.”

“It’s fine!” Tails said with a smile. “Presents are just, like, the icing on the cake anyway. It’s really fun to shop for people and to see their reactions when they open up their gifts, but it’s not mandatory.”

“Yeah, but it’s still expected, right?” Scourge sighed.

“Scourge, don’t worry about it,” Zonic said, resting his elbows on the table and leaning forward. “Honestly, being able to spend time with all of you over the holidays is good enough for me.”

The green hedgehog rolled his eyes. “Again: you’re a total sap, Z.”

The cop looked down at the mug in his hands, moving it so the liquid swirled around. “Well, I gotta say this stuff while I can. I’ve already lost my family twice, and I barely got to say anything either time. So…” He hunched up his shoulders as the conversation went quiet. Though the No Zoner had been speaking rather casually, his words held a dark weight to them. “Uh, sorry to kill the mood like that.”

“Nah, it’s okay,” Sonic said quietly. “This time of year’s supposed to be all about family.” He exhaled, the cool air feeling heavy in his lungs. He shared a glance with Tails. The corner of his mouth quirked upward, and he winked. “Y’know what? To hell with it, let’s do presents now.”

Zonic’s eyes widened. “Uh, shouldn’t we wait until tomorrow?”

“Who cares what we should or shouldn’t do? There’s no Solstice rule book. I want to give you guys your presents now, so why not do it now?” Sonic’s grin stretched across his whole face, and he pushed himself up to his feet while trying to keep his blankets draped around him like a cape. “I’m gonna go get ‘em, be right back.”

He turned and started to head upstairs as Tails stood up, too. “I hid mine in the lab, lemme grab those too!” he exclaimed, hurrying towards the basement stairs.

“Ah, jeez,” Zonic chuckled sheepishly, hiking up his blanket around his shoulders. “Well, I guess we’re doing gifts now.” He scooted over to where his luggage sat a few feet away, the bags not having moved much since he arrived. He zipped one open and started pulling wrapped packages out of it one by one.

Scourge huffed, feeling awkward. He wasn’t sure what he should do while he waited for the others, other than think about how big of an idiot he was for forgetting to buy gifts. Sure, this was his first real Solstice celebration since he was a kid, but he knew how the whole thing was supposed to go. He didn’t have much of an excuse, other than the fact that he never had friends to buy presents for before. Not even just friends-- the other two hedgehogs had just been throwing around the word  _ family.  _ He held tightly onto his mug, rubbing his thumbs over the smooth ceramic as his mind fumbled over the word. It might’ve been the strong eggnog he’d been drinking, but he felt a little bit warmer inside.

After a minute, everyone reconvened back at the coffee table in the living room, and started handing out the colorful packages. Tails brought up some extra flashlights so it would be easier to see, and that really helped reading the labels on the presents. Soon, everyone had their presents sitting in front of them, just ripe for being torn into. Scourge stared at his for a moment longer than everyone else, processing that  _ ‘These people genuinely like me enough to give me stuff even though I’m a piece of shit who didn’t get them anything, why, I don’t deserve this, what the fuck.’ _ He didn’t dwell on that for long, though, and soon started ripping into his gifts like everyone else.

Probably the funniest gift of the evening was a DVD that Z gave to Sonic; apparently the Zone Cop had found an alternate dimension where Shadow was an actor and had starred in some horrible romcoms. Sonic had to promise not to let the striped hedgehog know anything about it, but chances of the DVD actually remaining a secret were pretty low. Other notable gifts were a new screwdriver for Tails, since he kept misplacing his, a Chao in Space box set for Zonic which included the extended editions of all three movies (somehow he hadn’t seen the sequels yet, so getting the fancy set of all three got him yelling excitedly), and a thick winter jacket for Scourge. He immediately put it on, his thin leather jacket not doing much good to protect him from the cold that was seeping into the workshop.

Scourge took another sip of his eggnog (he’d lost count of how many glasses he’d had. Oh well, it wasn’t the holidays if he wasn’t hungover) and started unwrapping the last gift-- Tails’s present to him. It was thin and rectangular, but it didn’t feel like a book or anything he expected from the brainy fox. He peeled the colorful paper away to reveal a picture frame, with a photo already inside. It was of the four of them, Sonic, Tails, Zonic, and Scourge; but two others were in the picture as well. The younger Sonic and Tails were there, front and center, waving to the camera. The three older hedgehogs were more towards the back, laughing at something, and Tails’s head was in the bottom corner. He must’ve taken the photo selfie-style. “Whoa…” the green hedgehog whispered quietly, inspecting the picture closely. “I didn’t know you got a picture of all of us… when’d you take this?”

“I think it was the day after you guys got back from the hospital,” the fox said with a small smile. “Do you like it?”

Sonic and Zonic leaned in to get a better look at the picture as Scourge nodded. “I… Yeah, I do. This is really somethin’, kid…”

Zonic looked up at Scourge and saw that his eyes were starting to get misty. “Dude… Are you crying?” he asked with a knowing smile.

“I’m… I’m so…” the green hedgehog choked as a tear leaked from his eye. “I’m so drunk,” he eventually said, hiccuping as the other three laughed. He laughed along with them, trying to compose himself. “Seriously, this eggnog is now like, 2% eggnog, 98% rum.”

“I think you’ve reached your limit, Scourge,” Sonic smirked, reaching to take his glass away from him.

“I know my limit!” the Moebian insisted. “And it was two glasses ago.” He took the glass back and took another sip, scooting away from Sonic who was reaching to grab the glass back. “No, no, no c’mon dude c’mon,” he said, trying to take additional sips as Sonic climbed on top of him to wrestle back the eggnog. It was hard to drink when he was giggling.

Zonic laughed and turned to Tails. “How frequently does this happen?”

“Not often, surprisingly. From what I’ve gathered, he usually saves getting this drunk for special occasions.”

“Ah. It’s weird to see him so… giggly.”

“Yeah,” the fox nodded. He smiled. “Wanna film it?”

“What?” Scourge blinked. He was now lying down, glass of eggnog held carefully over his head and out of Sonic’s reach. “Wait, film what? Tails? Where you goin’?!” he yelled. Tails darted out of the room to get his camera while the other two hedgehogs laughed. “What, what’s so funny?!” Scourge asked, sitting up. He was trying to be angry, but the laughter of his dimensional counterparts was contagious, and he started laughing again too.

Tails returned with his camera, and they had an impromptu photo shoot. It didn’t last very long, the camera’s flash blinding everyone and making them see spots, but the fox had taken enough pictures that he was satisfied. As evidenced by Scourge’s reaction to his present, pictures of all of them together definitely came in handy.

Everyone started feeling tired after that, the darkness seeping into their bones and making their eyes droop. Sonic and Tails pulled the couch out into a bed, and discussion began over who should sleep where. Because of the cold, the floor was definitely not preferable, and the one or two chairs in the room weren’t much comfier to sleep on while all bundled up. Everyone wanted to sleep on the pull-out, so… they did. It was big enough for everyone, and piling up all the blankets on top of one another and sharing them would make it feel much cozier.

“It’s a good thing I’m too drunk to protest this,” the green one said, crawling under the massive heap of blankets in between Zonic and Tails. “I can’t believe we’re actually fucking huddling together for warmth.”

Tails yawned sleepily, pulling the covers up to his chin. “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he hummed. His arms and legs were pulled in close to one another, trying to get warm and comfortable.

“Yeah right,” Sonic laughed, not yet piled in with the others. He was adding some more wood to the fireplace, making sure it the fire would be enough to keep them warm but also wouldn’t burn the house down if they all fell asleep while it was still burning. “You’re not  _ that _ drunk, Green. I’ve seen you way worse than this.”

“Name one time!”

“The time you chugged an entire bottle of champagne and then stole the President’s fondue pot,” the speedster immediately retorted.

“... Touche,” Scourge grumbled. Now that he was lying down, he was even sleepier than he had been previously. He couldn’t move much without hitting his friends on either side of him, so he turned over onto his side and started getting comfortable. The fresh blankets weren’t that warm yet, so he shivered inside his jacket. Maybe everyone huddling together, while silly, would be beneficial after all.

Before even muttering a ‘goodnight,’ Zonic was fast asleep next to him. The Zone Cop had passed out almost as soon as he had put his head on his pillow, already warm enough from his clothes and from the fire that he didn’t have any trouble.

Sonic closed the grate to the fire and then burrowed into the blankets, taking up the spot on the end next to Tails. “Night guys,” he said, his voice hushed.

“Goodnight,” Tails whispered. Scourge merely mumbled incoherently as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

ooo

When Scourge woke up the next morning, he was surprised to find that he was pleasantly warm. The air in the house was chilly and bitter, but under the pile of blankets, it wasn’t so bad. Even though the fire in the fireplace had burnt itself out, the heat coming off of his friends next to him had been enough for him to sleep comfortably.

He didn’t move when he woke up, only blinking his eyes open. Sonic, Tails, and Z were all still fast asleep, each of them curled up. Sonic and Tails were practically on top of one another, the fox’s namesakes were covering everyone like blankets; Zonic’s head was pressed into the green one’s shoulder, and Scourge’s arm was pinned underneath the cop, though not uncomfortably. He was surrounded by friends on either side, sandwiched between them. He kind of liked the feeling, it being a stark contrast to the Solstices he had as a kid. Those were all very formal, stuck-up, stiff. Fake smiles and forced kindness all around. But this, all of them bundled up on the pull-out couch, piled on top of one another, was so informal and spontaneous, so inherently close and friendly… He never thought this would be a scenario that he would get used to, but here he was.

Scourge squinted his eyes as bright morning light, enhanced by the fresh snow outside, shone in through the windows. His head hurt, a slight pounding in his temples. He was hungover, but it didn’t feel too bad. He assumed it would be worse, considering all he had to drink the night before. He chuckled quietly to himself. It was like a Solstice miracle.

“Mmm…” Tails hummed next to him, stretching and shifting as he started to wake up. He yawned, bearing his sharp canines, and he scrunched up his shoulders to pull his jacket up closer around his chin.

“Hey squirt,” Scourge whispered as Tails opened his eyes. They were pressed close together, so they couldn’t quite look at each other directly, but they could feel each other moving and see out of the corners of their eyes.

“Hey,” Tails whispered back, his voice raspy from sleep. He smiled. “Happy Solstice.”

“Happy Solstice.” The blanket shifted around him as Tails moved, coming away from his chin. A little bit of cold air snaked in, and he shivered. “Damn, I don’t wanna move now. It’s cold out there,” Scourge murmured, pulling the blanket back up a little closer to his chin. “And it’s so warm in here…”

“Yeah,” Tails nodded a little bit. “It’s a shame I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Noooo,” the hedgehog moaned as Tails started to sit up carefully. Tails climbed out from under the covers, doing his best not to move them too much so he didn’t let out the warmth. Scourge whined more as he clambered to the floor. “Fuuuuck so much of that warmth came from yoooouuu. You’re so soooooft…”

The fox snorted. “I”ll be back in a few, you big baby.” He rolled his eyes as he quickly shuffled off, heading up the stairs to the bathroom.

Sonic began to stir, feeling his younger brother’s absence. He rolled over, shortening the gap between himself and Scourge. “Hmmm… five more minutes…” he mumbled, his words stumbling out of his sleepy mouth. He snored loudly, the sound waking him up the rest of the way. “G’mornin’,” he said to anyone who was awake.

“Yo,” Scourge said sleepily. “Uh, happy Solstice.”

Sonic smiled a little bit, his eyes still closed. “Heh, happy Solstice, Green. You sleep okay last night?”

“You didn’t hear me screamin’ did you?” Scourge deadpanned. Sonic opened his eyes, the two of them sharing a knowing look for a moment. Scourge rolled his eyes and looked back up at the ceiling. “Nah, I slept fine. Fun fact, you don’t dream when you’re drunk.”

“Huh. Never knew that.”

“Well, that’s ‘cause you don’t drink.”

“Ding ding ding, we have a winner,” Sonic said, trying to do an announcer voice but failing miserably.

“Guuuuys,” Zonic whined, his head resting on Scourge’s shoulder and tucked underneath his cheek. “Shhh. M’tryin’ to sleep.”

“I thought you were used to wakin’ up early, Cap,” Scourge chuckled, the movements of his chest jostling the No Zoner slightly.

“It’s a holiday, fuck off,” he mumbled, clearly still half asleep. Sonic snorted at the bluntness of the comment, the sound coming out unintentionally loud. Z groaned, burying his face deeper between Scourge and the pillow.

“Chaos, dude, personal space,” Scourge laughed. “I can only tolerate so much. At  _ least _ buy me dinner first.”

“I’ll buy  _ you _ a dinner,” Zonic said in a vaguely threatening tone. He stopped shifting, and a snore rumbled out from his lips a moment later.

“Aw, look, he likes you,” Sonic smiled.

“Gods, shut up.” Scourge reached his arm across the gap between him and Sonic so he could lazily slap his twin in the face.

“Ow, help, I’m being assaulted,” he said, waving blindly with one arm to try and block the onslaught of slow, weak attacks.

Of course, Tails picked that moment to return to the living room, rubbing his cold hands together. The rest of the house was still freezing, after all, and while the water was still running, it was all ice cold. “Scourge, stop attacking Sonic,” he lightly scolded, walking over to the couch and leaning on its arm rather than crawling back under the covers.

Sonic looked up at him, smiling. “Hey, broseph, happy Solstice. You gonna get back in here?”

“Can’t,” Tails shook his head. “If I do, I’ll never get out again. The warmth ensnares me.”

Scourge snorted. “Yer not the only one. Chrome Dome woke up and passed right back out again.”

“Let him sleep, he’s been busy. Poor guy still had to work yesterday, don’t forget.”

“He’s always at work, he shouldn’t get any special treatment fer that,” Scourge raised an eyeridge at him. “And besides, he’s holding my arm hostage.”

“Guess you’re stuck then,” Sonic smirked. “So long Scourge, it was nice knowing you.” He gently rolled out of bed, recoiling only slightly when his bare legs hit the cold air. He stood, the chilliness waking him up like a good slap to the face. “Ooh, yikes, it’s freezing out!”

“I know, it’s shocking,” said Tails. “C’mon, let’s see what we can cook up for breakfast. Bye Scourge. I’ll miss you,” he lazily waved to the green hedgehog as he turned on his heels and headed towards the kitchen.

“Wait, no, don’t leave me here!” Scourge fake-screamed, reaching his free hand out towards them, but the two brothers snickered as they walked away. “Hey Tails, I thought you were gonna fix the generator today?” he called after them.

“Breakfast now! Generator later!” the fox’s voice called back.

The green hedgehog groaned. He turned his head to look at Z, who hadn’t moved an inch. The dude was fast asleep, and it was impossible to tell he had woken up at all by looking at him. Scourge  _ could _ move him, but he was happy under the heavy blankets as it was, and Zonic’s head was keeping him warm. Plus with all the excitement the night before, it was no surprise the cop wanted to sleep in. He didn’t really want to wake him up.  _ ‘Okay,’  _ he thought,  _ ‘I’ll wake him up when my arm starts to get sore or somethin’. That’s fair enough.’  _ He got comfortable again, readjusting the blanket that had shifted when Sonic and Tails got up. If he was staying in bed, he might as well be comfy.

About twenty minutes later, Tails poked his head back in the living room to call Scourge in for breakfast, only to find that he’d fallen asleep again. The fox rolled his eyes and considered pulling his phone out of his jacket pocket to take some pictures of Zonic and Scourge snuggled up so close, but he already had plenty of blackmail photos of Scourge from the night before. It would've made a nice picture though, the two alternate dimension hedgehogs sleeping so soundly. Instead, he walked over to the side of the couch and gave them both nudges to wake them up. "Hey, sleepyheads. Get up, we got breakfast almost ready to go."

"Whuh?" Zonic said eloquently, squinting and letting off a yawn as he woke up.

Scourge blinked, squeezing his lids shut hard and rubbing them with his fingers. "Ah shit, guess I fell back asleep," he mumbled. He wriggled his arm free, no longer worried about waking Zonic up, and rolled over onto his stomach. "FREEDOOOOOM," he cheered, his voice sleepy and sounding somewhat out of it.

"Oops, sorry," Z smiled. "We'll be right there, Tails," he said, gently waving the fox off with one hand as he rubbed at his eyes with the other. "Gods, I feel like I've been asleep for ages."

"S'not that late," Scourge said, his face half buried in the pullout mattress. "S'probably like, ten or somethin'."

"It's late for me," the cop chuckled. He stretched himself out, stiff from staying in one position for so long. He slowly pushed himself upright, trying to keep as much of the blanket on top of him as possible as he moved. "Uuugghhh coooooollldddd..."

"Good t'know yer just as articulate as the rest of us first thing in the morning."

“But… you just used the word  _ articulate. _ To say how unarticulate you are.”

“Inarticulate. Grammar, bitch.”

“Chaos, shut up,” Z said with a laugh, taking his pillow and tossing it at Scourge’s head, where it connected with a  _ flump. _ “C’mon, let’s get breakfast.”

“Ugh, fine! Jeez, I can’t be the smart guy fer once?”

ooo

Once breakfast was over, it was time to fix the generator. Unfortunately,  _ getting _ to the generator would require moving a lot of snow, and a tree. So it quickly became a group project, with Zonic and Tails breaking out the shovels while Sonic and Scourge spindashed the tree into pieces, making it easier to carry off. Even though the snow from last night had stopped, it was still bitterly cold out, so everyone was bundled up to their noses. The working conditions were pretty miserable, to say the least.

After enough of the snow in the back of the house had been cleared and the tree had been broken up and hauled off (or, angrily kicked off the side of the plateau), Tails could get to work on the repairs. Zonic stayed to help him, citing the couple of times he’d fixed up a car’s engine as reference. The other two started shoveling out the front of the house, a job that had to be done at some point anyway.

Sonic and Scourge couldn’t see the holes they’d made in the snow last night at all, and they couldn’t find the second felled tree either. The snow had completely covered up everything, reaching about two and a half feet tall in some places. For a couple of hedgehogs who weren’t even 3’5, that was pretty tall. They did their best clearing the snow away from the front door and making a path to the stairs at the edge of the plateau, but it wasn’t easy. Even when they decided to make it into a competition, they didn’t fare much better, and wound up just tiring themselves out. They’d cleared away the area around the door and made a little bit of a path before they both flopped down in the snow, making deep imprints and tiredly laughing as their breath clouded up around their faces.

It wasn’t long before they heard a revving, a sputtering, and then an engine running coming from the back of the workshop. They could hear Zonic and Tails cheer as the lights inside flickered on, one by one. “Wooo!!” Sonic yelled so they could hear. He clapped as loud as he could in his thick snow gloves, hoping the noise reached them through the snow that surrounded him on all sides.

“It’s about damn time!” Scourge shouted, clumsily trying to climb out of the snow. In the process of getting up, he spilled a bunch of the powder into the path that he and Sonic had just cleared out, and he grumbled angrily at it. “Y’know, I think I hate snow,” he said, looking at Sonic’s feet, which was the only part of him that stuck out of the snowbank.

“It just sucks to shovel it, that’s all. Snow’s no fun if it’s in the way.” The blue hedgehog sat up, shaking the powder out of his quills. “It’s perfectly fun to play in though. For example…” He quickly gathered up a handful of snow and launched it at Scourge, who caught on quickly enough that he was able to dodge.

“Nice try!” he laughed, shoving his hands in the tall pile of snow next to Sonic. He pushed the top of the pile off, burying Sonic in a small avalanche. He cackled loudly as his good twin yelped, struggling to escape the freezing pile.

By the time Zonic and Tails had trudged around to the front of the house to see what all the commotion was about, Sonic had dug himself out and tackled the laughing Scourge to the ground, the two wrestling in the deep snow and almost completely hidden from view. Keeping their distance, the two newcomers shared a sly look and ducked down into the snow, starting to pile it up in front of them to create a wall. It was easy when the snow was already piled so high, and their footsteps had already left narrow trenches through the powder. Working quickly, Zonic packed in the wall while Tails started scooping together snowballs.

Once Sonic and Scourge realized they were there, the twin speedsters looked up, poking their heads out of the hole they had created in the snow. “FIRE!!” Zonic and Tails shouted, and a barrage of snowballs started flying out from behind the modest fort wall. They screamed in a vain attempt to scramble away, getting pelted in the heads and chests with the well-packed snowballs.

“Alright, bring it on!” Sonic said, realizing that this meant war. He curled up into a spindash and started revving in place, sending snow flying at his attackers like he was a snowblower.

 

Their snow war went on for quite a while, considering how cold it was outside. They fought until it was almost lunch time, and by the end of it all they were freezing, wet, and sore from taking so many hits. Thankfully, by the time they all piled back inside the workshop, the heat had turned on and had started to warm the place back up. They huddled around the radiator in the kitchen, putting their hands and feet right up next to it. They were laughing, shivering, teeth chattering. Overall, a great start to the holiday, and a fantastic way to kick off the winter.

The trains still weren’t running, and likely wouldn’t start up again until at least the next day because of all the snow and the holiday. Being trapped in the workshop wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t like any of them had any plans otherwise. There were definitely worse places to be stuck in, and worse company to be stuck with. But they would live. Just as long as they didn’t touch Monopoly again, because if Monopoly got brought back out, someone was going to actually die. Probably Scourge. Definitely Scourge. Oh well, at least if he was going to die a horrible board game related death, he would die happy.


	8. Scourge's Apartment

**July**

Scourge and Amy both collapsed onto the recently-completed couch. They’d done it. That was the last piece of furniture they needed to assemble. Over the course of a week, they’d gone to the furniture store, the bed-bath-kitchen-whatever store, the grocery store, basically every kind of home-furnishing store imaginable. It took another week alone just to assemble all the furniture and get everything set up and put away. It wasn’t even a ton of stuff, just the things you’d expect to find in any self-respecting apartment. But still, it had taken them two long, hot, sweaty weeks. As they crashed on the couch, Scourge was glad Amy had talked him out of getting the leather one. Even through his fur, his sweaty legs would’ve stuck to that sucker like nobody’s business.

Amy puffed her bangs out of her face, sprawling out across the sofa. Her quills were up in a ponytail, several individual spines having come loose and sticking out all over. Instead of her usual red dress and boots, she wore a loose-fitting, paint-stained t-shirt and a pair of shorts. The ultimate in “I’m not going out in public and I’m gonna be all sweaty later” attire. Scourge’s leather jacket, likewise, was nowhere to be found on his person. It was lying on the new chair in his bedroom, untouched for days. It was the middle of July, and it was too damn hot to even  _ look _ at his jacket.

“We’re done,” Amy breathed, finally able to relax after all that work.

Scourge nodded, both in agreement and disbelief. “It’s fucking hot out.”

“Yeah, that too.” She puffed her shirt in a poor attempt at fanning herself off. “It looks nice in here, though.”

“Can’t argue that,” the green one replied. While he wasn’t happy with the white walls (they resigned themselves to painting the apartment at a later date), he was on board with everything else. A lot of it was black. Black sofa, black chairs, black shelving unit, and the darkest wood they could find for his kitchen table. Everything that wasn’t black, he’d wanted to be red, but Amy stepped in again, suggesting that he didn’t dress up his apartment to look like Shadow.

“How great would that be though??” he had said, as they roamed aimlessly through the wild expanse of the furniture store. “What if all of Shadow’s furniture is black with red stripes?  _ What if?” _

“Oh my gosh that would be fantastic. I need this to be true,” Amy had said back, her eyes wide like she’d just had an epiphany.

But yeah, he’d passed on the red bedsheets and shower curtain, opting for dark green instead. The color suited him better, anyway. The windows in his apartment were decently big and faced the street, letting in enough light that he could get away with all the dark furniture. There was a fire escape outside as well, where he could sit out and be “an edgy loser,” according to Amy.

“I can’t believe this place is actually decent and livable,” Scourge hummed, looking up at the ceiling. “I’ve… never really had my own place before.”

“Really? Not even when you… y’know, took over an entire castle for yourself?”

“Had to share it with the team,” he replied. “Besides, I wasn’t in there long enough to actually redecorate. Plus it was drafty as fuck.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that about castles,” Amy chuckled. “Speaking of drafts, can I crack open a window in here?”

“Knock yourself out.”

The girl dragged herself up off the couch and slowly padded over to the windows of the living room. She pulled one open easily, letting some of the cool breeze from outside into the apartment. “Perks of living on the twelfth floor, it’s usually windier the higher up you are.”

“Yup. What floor you on again? I’m asking so I know how to avoid you and your helpful motherly tendencies.”

The way Scourge said it, she couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but he seemed to be in good humor. “I’m on the fifteenth,” Amy answered. “And if you want to avoid me so bad, maybe I  _ won’t  _ give you your housewarming gift.” She leaned back against the windowsill, arms crossed.

Scourge perked up, picking his head up off the couch to look at her. “Y’got me somethin’?” When she nodded, he just stared at her with a confused look on his face. “... Why? Ya already helped me out fer two fuckin’ weeks, why’d ya get me anythin’?”

“Because I wanted to, shut up,” she chuckled. She got up from the windowsill and moved over to the kitchen counter, where she had left her phone and her other things when she had come in earlier that morning. Among her things was a small paper bag, which she carefully picked up from the bottom. “It’s not wrapped or anything, hope you don’t mind.”

Scourge just sat up and watched her quietly as she walked back over to the couch, setting the bag down in his lap. He put his hands around the bag as she sat down next to him. He went to reach his hand into the bag when she suddenly stopped him.

“Careful! Uh, it’s pointy. Maybe just-- pull the bag down around it, yeah,” Amy said as he started to do just as she suggested. He pulled the bag down to reveal what was inside. It was a small potted cactus, short and green and covered in needles. It had a little face drawn on the pot in a weird expression he couldn’t figure out, and a tag with instructions on how to take care of it.

“A cactus…?” he said, picking it up by the pot and turning it around to look at it.

“Yeah! It’s green and spiky, like you.”

“Hah! Alright, that makes sense,” the green one laughed, understanding her choice now.

“I figured you might get lonely in here all by yourself, so he can be like a little buddy for you. Or something, I dunno,” Amy said sheepishly, hoping she didn’t sound like an idiot.

“He, huh?” Scourge said, raising an eyeridge. He stared down the little cactus, almost as if he could read its mind by glaring at it. “I’m naming him Spike.”

“Spike?”

“Yup,” he said proudly, a cocky smirk gracing his lips.

Amy smiled, leaning back on the couch. “Glad to see you’re just as good at naming things as Sonic is.”

“Woah woah hey woah hey, I’m  _ way _ better at namin’ shit than Blue is!” he insisted, putting Spike down on the coffee table. “I’ll have you know I came up with the name Scourge  _ on the fly,  _ and my name is  _ the shit.” _

“I dunno man, the way Knuckles tells the story, you had a whole opening speech prepared when you turned green,” the pink one laughed. “You sure you didn’t think of the name beforehand and then you were all like,  _ oh man that’s good, I gotta save that for later?” _

“Wow, rude. I’ll have you know I’m a very quick thinker.”

“... Spike, though?”

“I’m tired, the fuck do ya want from me? What am I s’posed to name ‘im, Deathkiller the Devil Plant?”

“That can be his full name. Spike is his nickname. He’s cuter that way.”

“Alright, fine,” Scourge snorted, leaning back and setting one foot on the table, careful not to hit his new plant. “... Thanks, Pinky. I like ‘im.”

“You do? Oh, well I’m glad!” Amy beamed. “He should be super easy to take care of too, so you shouldn’t even have to worry about him.”

“Nice. I hate worryin’ about stuff.”

“Same here, wow, what a coincidence,” Amy teased.

Scourge gave her a fake slap on the arm, sticking his tongue out at her. “Yeah yeah, very funny. So whaddaya say we don’t worry about lunch, and just order some takeout?”

“Yessss let’s do it!”

 

~~~

**September**

Tails wasn’t sure what to expect when Scourge invited him over to his apartment for some “bro bonding.” Scourge was hardly the socializing type, and while the hedgehog wasn’t a fan of being alone, he also didn’t normally invite people over to his place. Obviously, he had something special in mind.

Tails just hadn’t expected that special something to be beer pong.

“C’mon T, it’ll be fun! It’s easy as shit, and you don’t even gotta play with beer if you don’t wanna,” Scourge said, tucking a folding table under one arm and holding a six-pack of beers in the other. He wanted to play up on the roof, where they could spill drinks freely and not worry about cleaning it up. “Actually, you can’t play with beer anyway. Yer a minor, and if the Zone Cops catch me servin’ alcohol to a kid like you, they’ll have my ass.”

“I dunno,” the fox said, feeling unsure about the whole situation. This mainly sounded like an excuse for Scourge to start drinking at 3 pm, and also, his throwing arm was less than spectacular. He wasn’t keen on making a fool of himself. “This doesn’t seem like my usual type of thing.”

“And that’s bad?” Scourge awkwardly shrugged, difficult because of the amount of stuff in his arms. “Look, you don’t gotta play if you don’t want to, but it’s just a game. I’ll be the only one drinkin’. ‘Sides, I thought it’d be fun to teach ya somethin’, and it was either I teach ya how to play this, or strip poker. Or piano, but fuck that noise.” He made a face as he recalled the apparently dreaded instrument.

Tails rubbed the back of his neck and thought it over for a moment or two. He sighed. “Yeah, alright. Need me to carry anything?”

The green hedgehog grinned, and there was a sparkle in his eyes. “Yeah, there’s a pack of Chaos Cola and a bottle of water in the fridge, can you grab those? Oh, and the cups too,” he said, nodding to a big bag of red plastic cups on the kitchen counter. “I got the ping pong balls in my pocket. That’s all we need.”

They lugged their supplies into the building’s elevator and rode it up as high as it would go. From there, they unfortunately had to climb a ladder to get up to the roof. Tails’s ability to fly made it go a lot more smoothly than it would have otherwise, though that didn’t stop them from almost dropping the table once or twice as they carried it up.

“Alright, so the basics are pretty damn simple,” Scourge said, unfolding the table and getting the legs in place. “We set up ten cups on each side, like bowling pins. Pour a little beer in each one, or whatever you’re drinking. Then you just try and throw the ping pong ball into the other guy’s cups. If you land a shot, they gotta drink that cup. You miss, and it’s the other guy’s turn, and you just go back and forth. Easy.”

“Very,” Tails nodded, starting to break the sodas and beers out of their cardboard packs. “Sounds pretty gross though, drinking something that had a dirty ping pong ball in it. What if the ball lands on the ground?”

“There’s no if. It  _ will _ land on the ground. And that’s what the water’s for. Dunk the ball in the water before each throw, to clean it.” Scourge saw the grossed-out look on Tails’s face and laughed. “Yeah, it ain’t the most sanitary of games. You don’t have to drink from the cups if ya don’t want to, you can have a beer on the side that you drink out of instead. Just as long as you drink, and then put the cup the ball landed in off to the side. Whoever sinks all their opponent’s cups first wins.”

“So… either you win, or you end up drinking a lot of beer?”

“Yep. So it’s really a win-win either way.”

“Sounds like your kind of game.”

Scourge narrowed his eyes at Tails, but smiled nonetheless. “Heeeey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ll tell you if you win,” the fox replied, reaching for the cups to help set them up.

“Oho, so that’s how we’re playin’, huh?” the hedgehog grinned, baring his teeth. “Alright kid, if it’s war you want, it’s war yer gonna get!”

They started playing shortly after, and they were just about evenly matched. Even though Scourge was more experienced, beer bong doesn’t exactly require a whole lot of skill, and he may or may not have pregamed a little before Tails arrived. They traded the lead back and forth until Scourge won, but it was such a close game that they had a rematch right after. And another rematch. And another rematch. The simple gameplay was addicting, and the two were having fun taunting each other.

That is, until Sonic showed up. He had apparently been on a run across the Station Square rooftops when he spotted his two friends, and skidded to a stop on the roof of the apartment. It took them a moment or two to realize he was there, both of them intensely focused on their game. “Yo guys!” Sonic waved as he walked over, Tails giving him a nod before turning back to the game.

“Hey Sonic! C’mon, watch, I just need one more and then I win,” the fox said, getting in position to throw the ball. Scourge only had one cup left, while he had two; their fourth close game in a row.

Sonic walked over and cocked an eyeridge, taking in the game in front of him. “Is what you guys have been up to all day? Playing beer pong?”

“Tails is freakin’ good at this, man! Dude’s a natural!” Scourge exclaimed, gesturing with the can of beer in his hand.

The blue one looked at the can in his hand, then down at the ground behind him, where a pile of similar, empty cans sat. While there were some soda cans in the mix, most of them were beers. “You drink all that  _ today,  _ Green?”

“So what if I did?”

“I mean, you do you, but that’s an awful lot of beer and… I’m not seeing any food anywhere. I may not know much about alcohol, but I do know that drinking that much on an empty stomach is a bad idea,” Sonic said with a smirk.

“Oh… crap,” Tails gasped, “yeah, we haven’t eaten anything, have we? We got so caught up in this… What time is it?”

Scourge pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned it on, wincing at the lock screen. “Uh… A little past six. Haha, shit.”

“Haha, yeah,” Sonic lightly mocked, “real responsible Scourge.”

“At least I’m the only one drunk! I gave Tails soda, I’m not  _ that _ bad of an influence on him.”

“You’re still teaching a fourteen-year-old to play beer pong.”

_ “Sonic,”  _ Tails groaned, “stop making a fuss. I’m fifteen in a couple months anyway,” he said. He blew his bangs away from his eyes, focusing back on the game. “We’re almost done, so we’ll finish this up and then go get some food. Right… after… this!” He gave the ball a toss, the little orb of plastic sailing through the air in a graceful arc. Almost in slow motion, it bounced off the edge of the red plastic cup and landed safely inside.

“Oh nooo what a tragedy,” Scourge smiled, picking the ball out of the cup and then downing the beer. He laughed as Tails beamed triumphantly. “Not bad kid, not bad. Next time we do this, I’ll have to stop goin’ easy on ya.”

“Say what? You had three games  _ before _ this to stop going easy on me! We’re even, face it!” Tails smirked, crossing his arms.

“Hah! Yeah right!”

“Girls, girls, you’re both beautiful,” Sonic rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s get some food into you guys. I passed by a new burrito place on my way here, I wanna give it a try.”

“Ooh, I’m down for a victory burrito,” the fox said.

“Victory?!” Scourge yelped. “You just said we were even!”

“Argue later, burrito now!” Tails said, taking both hedgehogs by the wrist and leading them to the hatch in the roof. They both laughed, and Scourge made a mental note to remember to clean up the table and beer cans when he got back. But for now, it was time for some much-needed food with his friends.

~~~

**February**

To say that Zonic was tired would be a massive understatement. For almost a week straight, the Zone Cop had been getting about three hours of sleep per night. Stay up until 5 am filling out reports and researching leads, go to bed, wake up at 8 to get to the station by 9. Rinse and repeat. This week had been particularly brutal, with a massive hole opening up in the cosmic highway, allowing two or three zones to start bleeding into one another. Sorting it all out and getting everything back to where it was supposed to be was a huge undertaking, and one that needed to be handled quickly. Begrudgingly, the NZPD’s star officer was on the case.

It was a Thursday night, around 4 in the morning, and Zonic was still at the station working. How he managed to get anything done was a mystery, since his vision was blurring and distorting, his eyes were struggling to stay open, and his hands had been trembling all day. Coffee had seemed to lose its effect on him, which was simply depressing. And the one time he attempted to mix coffee into a can of energy drink and consume the whole thing, Zector and Zespio stopped him and threw the concoction away. He was no longer running on sleep or caffeine, but simply fumes.

His eyes ached from staring at screens and reading papers all day. His back hurt, his hands hurt, his feet hurt, his legs hurt, even his butt hurt from being in his chair too long. His body was sending him every possible signal to  _ stop, stop whatever you’re doing right now and go to sleep. _ But he stayed awake, trudging away. His mind was tricking itself into thinking he could do this, that he could still form coherent thoughts and do good work. The truth of the matter was that he would wake up, see what he had written the night before, and want to just give up on life and jettison himself into the sun. But for the time being, he pushed on.

At least, until, he closed his eyes for a second and the next thing he knew, his head had fallen and smashed against the keyboard. He shot up again, blinked, dazed and dizzy, and held his heavy head in one hand. “Yep, that’s it,” he hoarsely whispered to himself, pushing away from the computer station. “Can’t. Not doin’ no more. Goin’ t’bed.” His words were slurring together as he pushed himself up out of his chair and reached for his portal belt. He needed to get out of the station and go home, now. He put in the coordinates, opened up the portal, and stumbled through to the other side. Screw his uncompleted work. That was a problem for future Zonic.

When he got out of the portal, he was in his darkened bedroom back home at his apartment. Not even bothering to change or shower or anything, he just slipped off his helmet, boots, and armor, and collapsed into the soft bed without a second thought.

He woke up many hours later, feeling warm and groggy. Midday light was shining in through the window, which he saw when he cracked open one eye. Something felt off to him, but he couldn't quite figure out what. His mind was still in a dreamy haze, and he couldn't hold one thought at his attention. It took him a few moments before he could focus, and when he did, a slew of information hit him all at once. He hadn't set his alarm, which meant he slept in, which meant he was majorly late for work. There was a strange weight next to/on top of him, which certainly wasn't normal. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, this wasn't his room.

The Zone Cop shot up, sitting up in bed and shoving whatever was on top of him to the side. His head swam, and his blurry eyes had a hard time focusing. He looked down to see Scourge lying next to him, starting to wake up. "What...?!" Zonic groaned, his voice hoarse and his mind a jumble. What the hell was Scourge doing here? Where was he, what was going on?

"Check please!" Scourge half-shouted as he jolted awake, his eyes clumsily fluttering open. He slowly turned his head to look at Zonic, who was staring at him awkwardly. "What the fuck... yer not that cute girl from last night," was apparently all he had to say for the moment.

"What the  _ hell," _ the Zone Cop muttered, rubbing his eyes and looking around. This was definitely not his room. Different layout, furniture, no Chao in Space poster. "Where the... Scourge, what the hell are you doing here?!"

"This's my room, dummy," the green hedgehog tiredly grumbled into the pillow. "I should asking... should be asking you that question. Wha's the big idea?"

"Your room? So that means... Aw shit," the cop sighed. "Did I 'port here instead of my room last night? Fuuuuuuck...."

"That's hilarious." Scourge seemed too tired and dazed to really care, and closed his eyes to go back to sleep.

"Why the hell didn't you wake me up?!" Zonic hissed, giving him a shove. "I wandered in here at like, four in the morning! I could have sworn this bed was empty..."

"It was. I wasn't home yet."

"So you got home and didn't think it was weird that I was just asleep in your bed?"

"I was... I  _ am _ very drunk."

"Chaos."

“Mmmmmmmmmmmmmhmm.”

“Jeez, dude… It’s a  _ weekday,  _ why’re you getting plastered on a  _ weekday?” _

“I don’t have a job. What’re you, my mom?”

“Yes, we’ve already established this. Chaos, I can’t believe this. I’m so sorry, I could’ve sworn that portal I opened lead back to my place--”

“Sounds like you got plastered on a weeknight, too,” Scourge giggled. Yeah, he was definitely still drunk.

“I didn’t,” Zonic forcefully corrected. “I was just freakin’ tired. I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep lately, I’ve had so much work…. Crap, what time is it?” He nearly had a heart attack as he leaned over Scourge to look at the alarm clock by his bedside.  _ It was two in the afternoon. _ “Shit, shit shit shit shit shit shit!” the cop panicked, lurching and tumbling out of the bed. “Gods I’m so late, Zlaze will wring my freaking neck--”

“No, call in sick,” Scourge said simply from the bed.

“I  _ can’t, _ there’s still a ton I need to get done--”

“If you were tired enough that you wound up in a diff’rnt  _ dimension _ to go to bed,” he mumbled, lazily pointing a finger at Zonic, “yer too tired t’work. Call. In. Sick.”

“I’m  _ fine,”  _ Zonic insisted, struggling to keep his balance as he walked across the room. He stumbled towards his discarded helmet on the floor, which had been kicked to the side by Scourge the night prior. He picked it up and looked inside at the screen, feeling almost physical pain when he saw how many messages he had waiting for him. “Oh jeez…”

“You sure you don’t wanna call in sick?”

“... I’m tempted,” the officer shuddered, not at all looking forward to what the chief would have to say to him for coming in so late. “I really should go, I got a full night’s worth of sleep and all…” He waited for Scourge to argue, but the green hedgehog simply moaned and turned over in bed. He seemed too hungover to want to put up a fight about it. “... They can last a day without me, right? Because I already missed so much of the day, would it even be worth it to go…?”

“Can you talk to yerself a lil’ more quietly?” Scourge complained. “You can stay here if you want. Fuck, you can even keep crashin’ in my bed, it’s more than big enough for two. Just make up yer damn mind already.”

Zonic hummed in frustration, looking nervously at the helmet in his hands. He did want to go to work, he had left so much unfinished the night before-- but even as he was thinking about it, his eyes were drooping and he was starting to yawn. “I’ll be right back,” he eventually said, taking the helmet and slowly trudging out of the bedroom.

He shut the door behind him, presumably about to make a call. Scourge sighed softly, feeling a small sense of victory. Z was a total workaholic, and sometimes he needed an intervention. The green hedgehog knew all too well what it was like to not get enough sleep, and while he didn’t usually try and take care of others, this was such a simple fix. Zonic was one of his best friends, and if he needed to talk a bit of sense into that thick head of his, he could do it.

He could hear the cop talking outside his bedroom door, probably explaining to his boss why he was in the Prime Zone instead of the station. He closed his eyes as a wave of pain spread through his head, making his temples throb. Yeah, he was definitely hungover. He didn’t feel nauseous yet, which was nice, but he had a feeling he would eventually. Maybe he could just sleep through his hangover and wake up fine.

After a couple of minutes, Zonic reentered the room, pulling his helmet back off. “Zlaze agrees it’s best if I stay home today,” he announced, setting the helmet down on the chair in the corner.

“She sounds more reasonable than I remember,” Scourge smiled a bit, scooting to the side to make more room in the bed.

Zonic crawled in next to him, still wearing his uniform from the day before. He felt a little gross, but he was too sleepy still to care. He stretched out his legs before curling up on his side, bringing his hands up under his chin.

Scourge took up a similar position, and the two were facing each other. He looked down at the cop’s wrists, seeing the tattoo around one and a blinking, silver bracelet around the other. “Dude, you’re wearin’ yer stabilizer? You  _ sure _ you didn’t come here on purpose?”

“I come to Mobius a lot now, I just got used to keeping it on,” Zonic mumbled, getting comfortable. His head had sunk deep into the pillow, and his eyes were starting to close. “Makes life easier.”

“Mm,” the green hedgehog hummed in understanding, his eyes drooping shut as well. He started to chuckle a little bit. “You’re lucky I went to sleep drunk… if I had a nightmare and woke up and you were in my bed with me, I prob’ly woulda flipped the fuck out.”

Z’s eyes opened again, and he suddenly looked concerned. “Do you want me to go? I don’t wanna freak you out--”

“I already said it’s fine,” Scourge said, shoving where he guessed Zonic’s shoulder was. “B’sides, bein’ alone all the time kinda sucks. S’nice havin’ a friend sleep over…” he muttered, sleep starting to take its hold on him again. “Night,” he eventually said, his voice quiet.

“Night, Scourge,” Zonic smiled, letting himself get comfortable again.

 

“Uuugghhhh…” Scourge groaned, pain rocketing through his head. He felt every heartbeat pound through his skull, blood rushing loudly around his temples. His mouth was bone-dry, and his stomach was doing loop-de-loops. Needless to say, he didn’t sleep through his hangover. He weakly opened one eye, squinting against the late afternoon sun that poured in through his bedroom window.  It was pretty late in the day, the sun getting ready to set soon. It was warm in his room under his dark-colored sheets, and the hedgehog was tempted to not move. However, his uneasy stomach prompted him to sit up, with the goal of eventually getting to the bathroom in case he threw up.

He gently shifted himself upwards, minding his head and his stomach. He rubbed his eyes, blinking hard to clear them. As he glanced around, he noticed the bed was empty next to him. Zonic was gone, though his helmet and armor still sat on the chair in the corner.

Scourge gingerly slid out of bed, his body aching as he moved. He was sore from sleeping for so long, his back and neck protesting. He moaned, holding his head in his hand as he started to trudge out of his room.

He stumbled into the bathroom and threw up into the toilet.

“You okay?” he heard Zonic call from somewhere else in the apartment.

“... Yeah,” Scourge said hoarsely, his throat burning. He spit. “M’okay. Jus’ hungover as shit.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Stop yelling.”

He could faintly hear Zonic chuckle, sounding closer than he was before. The floorboards creaked in the hallway, and the Zone Cop peaked through the open bathroom door. “Hey,” he said quietly, trying to be mindful of Scourge’s headache. He was freshly showered, and he’d changed out of his uniform into just his shorts and an old hoodie that he’d “borrowed” from his gracious host. “I was gonna cook some breakfast-- or dinner, I guess-- but I guess you’re not too hungry, huh?”

Scourge looked sideways at him and barked out a laugh. “Chaos, you sleep in my bed, wear my clothes the morning after,  _ and _ you offer to cook? You are  _ ridiculously _ domestic, holy shit.”

“Ha! Yeah, I guess so,” Z chuckled. “I just feel like I owe you for letting me sleep here.”

“I accept cash,” Scourge said before his eyes widened, and he puked in the toilet again. “Bluh… Actually, a glass of water would be nice…”

Zonic nodded and backed out of the room. Scourge waited for him to return, elbows resting on the porcelain bowl, hands supporting his head. His mind was blank, too much in pain to handle much in terms of thought. He just stared down at the liquid in the bowl, readying himself in case he puked again.

“Okay, here,” Zonic said, sliding back into the room, two glasses in hand. “I got you ginger ale too, ginger helps an upset stomach.”

“Really?” Scourge rasped, accepting the water first and taking a sip of it. He grimaced as his throat started to burn.

“Yeah.” The cop lowered himself onto the ground so he was sitting next to Scourge. “Looks like you need a friend who’s more domestic, huh?”

“Never said I didn’t.” The hungover hedgehog put the water down and took the ginger ale instead, taking a cautious sip. “Thanks.”

“Welcome,” Zonic said with a small smile. He sat quietly as Scourge continued to sip the soda, taking his time with it. “You really shouldn’t drink so much. I feel like everytime I see you, you’re either drunk or on your way there.”

Scourge pouted. “... I have fewer nightmares when I’m drunk,” he admitted, his glass of soda hovering close to his lips. “Makes shit easier to deal with.”

“Yeah, I understand. It just… doesn’t seem very healthy. I guess I just worry about you.”

“Well, don’t worry too hard. I can handle myself, y’know.”

Zonic sighed, leaning his back against the sink and resting his hands on his knees. “Yeah,” he said, doubting that arguing would get him anywhere.

“Speaking of takin’ care of yerself,” Scourge said after another sip of ginger ale, “you need to sleep more than once a week, man. ‘Cause that ain’t good for you, either.”

“I can’t control how much work I get assigned. Trust me, if interdimensional crime took a break, I’d  _ love  _ to catch up on sleep. But until that happens…”

“You’ll keep stumblin’ into my apartment at some ungodly hour and passing out in my bed?” the green one asked with a little bit of a chuckle.

“Okay, hopefully it won’t get this bad again,” Zonic smiled and rolled his eyes. “I think after this, the Chief will stop shoving so much work on me. It’s seriously just too much.”

“How you manage to deal with all that is a fucking mystery.”

“Mmm,” Zonic hummed, tilting his head back and looking up at the ceiling for a moment. “You feeling any better?

“Still barfy. I think the soda’s helpin’ though,” Scourge said. “Whu’bout you, you feelin’ okay?”

“Much better. I needed that sleep, I have no idea how I was even functioning before. The shower helped too.”

“Yeah, after I stop feelin so sick I’ll probably crawl in the shower too. I feel gross after bein’ in that bar last night. What a fuckin’ dump,” Scourge chuckled.

Zonic made a short laugh through his nose and pat his friend on the back. As sudden and accidental as it was, he was glad to have a day off, and he was more than happy to spend it on Mobius Prime. Even if he was helping Scourge nurse yet another hangover, at least he’d been able to get some rest. “Thanks again for letting me crash here for the night,” he said after a minute of quiet.

“No prob. Thanks for puttin’ up with my drunk ass.”

He smiled. “What are friends for?”


	9. Guilty Displeasure

Scourge lay in bed. It was the middle of the day, bright summer sunlight shining in through his windows. But he lay there on his side, his head under his pillow to try and block out the light. Normally when he assumed this position, it was because he’d been out late the night before, either taking out Eggman’s robots or hanging out at the bar a couple blocks away. Today though, he wasn’t tired or drunk. He was sad.

Nothing bad had happened. He didn’t remember how his mind had gotten on this track, but he just woke up that morning and started thinking about everything that made him miserable. His dad. His breakup with Fiona. The lives he ruined without giving them a second thought. He’d made it halfway through breakfast before a deep guilt had settled itself like a brick in his stomach. The remnants of his toaster waffle still sat on the small kitchen table, mushy from prolonged exposure to syrup. The hedgehog left it as he slumped back to his room, feeling like it would just be “one of those days.”

He tugged the pillow down tighter over his face, blocking out more of the light. It was burning his tired eyes, and doing nothing but remind him that he should get up and do something productive.  _ Do something to get your mind off this crap. Do something that’ll help make up for all the shit you’ve done. _ But he couldn’t bring himself to move, his body feeling like it was collapsing into itself, like his gut was a black hole and he was getting sucked in. Everything just seemed to curl inwards, the green hedgehog lying fetally in his bed.

_ I killed my dad. Took a gun to his fucking head and ended his life. I was  _ eleven. _ Who  _ does _ that? How could that ever be okay? How could anyone ever forgive me for that…? Not to mention… All the other people I hurt trying to prove myself, trying to make a name for myself… or just for fun… How many people did I hurt? How many did I… did I kill? How many people hate me, how many don’t give a shit that I helped save the multiverse? How much fucking blood is on my hands?? _

His face grew hot, and tears started to well up in his eyes. He buried his face in his mattress, the ache in his stomach growing to include a light pounding in his temples. There was a tickle in the back of his throat that he tried to ignore.

_ But it’s all different now, right? _ he told himself.  _ I’m trying to be better, I’m trying to help… No, that doesn’t change a damn thing about the past. It doesn’t change that I hurt people, and I fucking  _ liked  _ it. That might just be the worst part, that I  _ liked _ it, that I was  _ proud _ of it… God dammit, I was fucking proud of it… _

He felt something wet slide out of his eye, sliding across his face until it dripped onto the mattress. Great, now his sheets would have tear stains. Whatever. He could deal with that once he was done grieving, and hating himself. This tended to happen every so often, especially since he’d begun living on Mobius. It was hard not to think about the horrible things he’d done, since 95% of his life, he’d been evil. He’d accumulated a lot of baggage from that. And there was nothing to do about it except to lie there, still, hating himself and the things he’d done. Not feeling like he deserved to be free. Not believing that anyone actually liked him.  _ They’re all lying to me. How could anyone give a shit about me? How could anyone think that letting me out of prison was a good idea? They’re just toying with me, as soon as they get tired of me they’re gonna throw me back in there, throw me aside just like everyone else did… and then I’m going to get mad and hurt them, since that’s all I’m fuckin’ good for… Why the hell did I ever think a monster like me could be a hero…? _

_ I killed my dad. I tried to kill Sonic. I tried to kill Tails, and Z, and all their friends, at some point. All  _ my  _ friends. I tried to take over Mobius, to  _ destroy _ Mobius. I tried to destroy No Zone, or at the very least, Zonic’s city. If I’d had my way back then, the multiverse would be in ruins. How the hell could I have wanted that…? Did I just want to be respected that fuckin’ badly…? _

He laid there for a while, not moving. His gut was heavy, his limbs had gone somewhat numb and tingly from sitting still, and the occasional tear leaked out of his eyes, leaving dark stains on his sheets where his head lay. He vaguely noticed that the light coming in from his window was slightly dimmer now, and slightly more orange. The sun was setting. He’d spent the whole day feeling like garbage, which of course, only made him feel worse.  _ Can’t do anything but feel sorry for yourself, useless fuckin’-- _

His masochistic train of thought was interrupted suddenly by a knock at his window. That being the last place he’d expect a knock to come from, he shot up, the pillow that covered his head landing at the foot of the bed. He turned to face the window, his head pounding with the sudden movement and light, and his face still stained with sideways tear tracks. Hovering outside was none other than Tails, holding a communicator in his hand and looking slightly worried.

Scourge sputtered, frantically wiping at his face. He had  _ not  _ expected to see Tails of all people, and the surprise just made him feel inexplicably more upset. Nonetheless, he climbed out of bed and shoved the window open, only stumbling once over his sleepy limbs.

“I’ve been trying to call you all day, but you didn’t pick up. I got worried,” the fox quickly explained once he saw Scourge’s miserable expression. “What’s wrong? You okay?” he asked, landing on the windowsill. The hedgehog said nothing. He let Tails come into the room, and then closed the window behind him. His head was still swimming and his limbs still felt numb, so he dropped back onto his bed.

Tails smiled sympathetically, not knowing what was wrong, but getting the feeling that the hedgehog wasn’t opposed to his presence. He gently sat down on the bed next to him, getting a good look at Scourge’s tear-stained face and sheets. The Moebian’s quills were more disheveled than usual, and it looked like he’d been laying here for quite a while. He was clearly upset about something, but… when it came to Scourge, there were a number of things he could be upset about. It probably wouldn’t do much good to guess. Tails patted him on the arm. “Well, I was going to ask if you wanted to come to this party tonight, Sonic’s DJing at a warehouse on the edge of town. But it looks like you’re not feelin’ so great.”

The hedgehog moaned in confirmation, burying his face in his bed.

“What’s the matter? Is there anything I can do?” Tails asked, to which Scourge didn’t reply. “Hrm. Well, have you eaten today? You might feel better if you eat something.”

“I’m not sick, T.”

“That wasn’t my question. Did you eat today?”

“Like… half a waffle. Probably hours ago,” Scourge muttered, not even looking at the fox sitting next to him.

“You want something to eat? You should at least drink something.”

“Why do you care?” the hedgehog spat, turning his head so he wasn’t speaking directly into his bed.

Tails seemed somewhat taken aback, though more surprised than offended. “What do you mean?”

“I’m a good fer nothin’ piece ‘a shit is what I mean,” Scourge said, his voice sounding wet and heavy. “Oh, it’s Scourge, why the fuck should anyone care about him? He’s just a worse version of Sonic, all he does is run around and ruin people’s lives! What an asshole, am I right?”

“Wha… What gave you that idea? Did someone say that to you?” the fox said, donning the ‘protective older brother’ face that he’d seen Sonic use so many times before.

“S’what everyone thinks,” the hedgehog said, dumping his head back into his mattress. “S’what I think.”

“Not everyone thinks that,” Tails sighed, his voice quiet. He frowned, not enjoying seeing his friend so miserable. He was used to the green hedgehog being mischievous, loud, crude, snarky. He didn’t usually see Scourge when he was upset, and never quite like this. “You’re one of my best friends. I don’t think you’re good for nothing, or a worse version of Sonic, okay? Anybody who thinks that can shove it.”

“Guess I gotta shove it thennn…”

“I didn’t mean you.” The fox cracked a smile, giving Scourge a little push on the shoulder.

“I’m shovin’ it, T… Shovin’ it right up my aaaaaaassssss……..” Scourge rolled so his butt landed in Tails’s lap, making the fox laugh.

“Aaand there’s the Scourge we all know and love,” the vulpine chuckled. Scourge exhaled out his nose short and quick, a small laugh, but he wasn’t smiling. Just covering up with jokes. He still refused to look in Tails’s direction. “Aw, c’mon man, talk to me. I wanna help.”

“Can’t.”

“You can’t talk, or I can’t help?”

“You can’t help. Unless you can make a machine that’ll make me stop hating myself.”

“They have those. They’re called therapists.”

“I ain’t goin’ to talk to a fuckin’ shrink, Tails.”

“So talk to me, then. Even if I can’t help, I still want to listen.” Tails waited for a reply, pouting when Scourge didn’t give him one. “Don’t make me come down there. I’ll lie down on top of you. Can’t ignore me if I lie down on top of you.” The green hedgehog didn’t respond. After a few moments, Tails shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said, climbing on top of the green one and smooshing him down into the bed. Scourge, who was lying on his side, was not particularly comfortable with the new arrangement.

“Tails, get off,” he grumbled, unmoving. He didn’t think struggling would do too much good; his body was too lethargic at the moment, and Tails was taller than he was. Not to mention, the fox had two more usable appendages than he had at his disposal.

“I’ll get off when you tell me why you’re in such a funk today.” Tails’s cheek was pressed into the hedgehog’s upper arm, so his words were coming out a little bit slurred.

“I’m in a funk because I’m a piece of shit and I hate myself. Okay now get off,” Scourge groaned.

“Nuh-uh, elaborate.”

“You never said I had to elaborate.”

“It was implied. If you don’t like it, you can always try to get up anyway.”

Scourge struggled for about ten seconds before coming to the conclusion that Tails had him pretty solidly pinned. He could get out, but that would involve potentially throwing Tails through the window, which he didn’t want to do. “Yeah that’s not happening,” he huffed. “You win. I hate myself because I’m a big piece of shit and I’m in a funk. Happy?”

_ “Scourge--” _

“Look, I can’t live with all the shit I did before! Alright?!” he burst, causing Tails to get up. “I hurt people, killed my dad, potentially a bunch of other people, I ruined Chaos knows how many people’s lives, and I was goddamn proud of it! An’ all the fuckin’ guilt decided to just suckerpunch me in the gut today so I’ve been lyin’ here like a goddamn sad sack just thinkin’ about it, and thinkin’ about it makes it worse! I just been’ sittin’ here just thinkin’ about how I’m a fuckin’ monster who doesn’t deserve a home or friends or nothin’ an’ I feel like I wanna claw my goddamn heart out!!” His hands grabbed desperately at his chest and stomach, tears threatening to leak from his eyes again.

Tails sat back up, his face plagued with worry. “Oh, Chaos…” he murmured as Scourge gathered his breath. The hedgehog pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, not wanting to get physically trapped like that again. He wiped at his eyes, keeping his arms tucked in tight to his body.

“I can’t fuckin’ forgive myself,” he half-said half-chuckled, but since he was so upset, the laughing sounded more like sobbing. “Everyone else can, but I can’t! I’ve been here, how long now? And I still can’t get the fuck over it and get on with my life. So every once in a while, I’m just like, oop! Time to wallow in misery for a day or two! Because  _ guess what, you killed people!  _ Hooray, great! Fan-fucking-tastic!!”

“Scourge,” the fox said gently, attempting to calm down the teary-eyed hedgehog. “Calm down, okay? Just take a few breaths, real slow.” When Scourge didn’t do as he asked, he added a “please?” which seemed to work. The hedgehog had his head tilted down, taking shuddery breaths that were as long as he could manage. Tails scooted closer to him and wrapped his arms around him, squeezing tight. “I’m sorry,” he said, letting Scourge’s head nestle into his shoulder. “It’s okay to feel guilty, it’s okay to feel bad about it. Just breathe. And just… remember that… you have friends who are here for you, and who wanna help you, and who are really proud of you.”

The moebian tensed up, quills bristling. “How the hell could you people be proud’a me? Everything I  _ did…” _

“Yeah, but now you’re trying to fix what you did. And I mean… it’s like they say, everyone’s got good and bad inside of them. What matters is the one you choose to act on. Y’know? You weren’t the greatest person in the past, but you’re trying your best now. It’s all anyone could ask of you, so don’t be so hard on yourself.”

Scourge said nothing, but his muscles loosened a bit as he sunk a little more into Tails’s arms. He made a noise that sounded vaguely like “thanks,” and limply returned the hug. After a few moments, he found himself able to take deeper breaths. What he hoped were the last couple of tears slid out of the corners of his eyes, and his shoulders fully dropped. He took one more long, slow breath, and held onto Tails a little more tightly.

“Better?” Tails asked, once it seemed like Scourge had calmed down.

“Mm,” the hedgehog breathed quietly, pulling himself away. “...Thanks, T. I needed that. I was… kinda just in a really shitty negative cycle all day, I guess…”

“That’s okay! It’s important to think about stuff like this, not just... bottle it up, and never acknowledge it,” the fox smiled, the image of another certain hedgehog popping into his mind. Surprisingly, from Tails’s experience, it was easier to get Scourge to open up about negative emotions than it was his more heroic counterpart. “If you bottle it all up and never think about it, it’ll just get worse and worse. You’ll never feel better about it.”

Scourge chuckled softly, crossing his legs. “When’d you get so smart about this stuff, kid?”

“Well… I’ve been savin’ the world alongside Sonic for most of my life, and it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. And you know Sonic. He never likes to think about the past, which can be a good thing and a bad thing,” he sighed, twiddling his fingers in his lap. “I still get the feeling that he feels guilty about what Chaos did to Station Square… It’s not easy to notice, but he’s really good at avoiding stuff like that.”

“Heh, yeah. Meanwhile, I’m a damn crybaby who can get upset at the drop of a hat.  _ Opposites,” _ he shook his head and smirked.

“What? Nah, I wouldn’t call you a crybaby!”

“Please. I’m a happy-crier, a sad-crier,  _ and _ an angry-crier.” Scourge wiped at his eyes as if to prove his point. “Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure Sonic and Z don’t cry, like, at all. I’m the fuckin’ sensitive one of this boy band,” he laughed.

Tails’s ears perked up. “Oh, speaking of band,” he said, holding up his communicator. “The party’s Sonic’s DJing... “

Scourge sighed, rubbing his bare arms. “Yeah, definitely not feeling up for that.”

“Didn’t think so. No worries, there’ll be more gigs. He got a bunch of new records recently, he’s been itching to try them all out….” the fox said absentmindedly as he shot Sonic a text. “You wanna play some Monster Truck Madness? I know you’ve got it here.”

The hedgehog’s eyes widened. “But… I thought you were goin’ to that party?”

“There’ll be others,” Tails shrugged simply. “‘Sides, I’m more in the mood for staying in tonight.”

Scourge got the thinly-veiled message.  _ Do you want me to stay here with you for a while? _ He thought about it for a few seconds before nodding. “Yeah, we can game. Chaos knows I could use a distraction right about now.”

“Cool. Wanna order a pizza?”

“With a side of garlic knots.”

“On it.”

The two spent most of the rest of the evening eating warm food and playing their game, which Tails was kind enough to let Scourge win exactly one time. The hedgehog didn’t mind. He welcomed the companionship, particularly on a day he’d thought he’d spend completely alone and miserable. He knew the guilt he’d been feeling wasn’t gone, not by a long shot. There’d be more days of waking up and just feeling that crushing weight on his chest. But hopefully… they’d be easier to manage now. He was trying his best. After all, it was all anyone could ask of him.


	10. Mini-Chapter: Anti Bonding

“Tails, you got that camera ready?” Sonic asked, stretching out his legs and tapping his toes on the colorful dance pad.

“Ready and rolling,” the fox replied, holding his Miles Electric up to face the backs of the two hedgehogs, both warming up on their respective Dance Renaissance machines.

“Good,” Scourge said, pulling his jacket off and tossing it onto the ground next to him so it was out of the way. “Make sure you get my good side when I kick Sonic’s ass at this.”

“Oh, you wish,” the blue one laughed. “I’ve been dominating at these things for years. Just because your reflexes are as fast as mine doesn’t change the fact that I have pretty much all of these levels memorized.”

Tails rolled his eyes. “So pick a level you haven’t memorized and get going. This video’s not going viral all by itself, y’know.”

“Okay, fine,” Sonic mumbled as he started scrolling through the available songs. “Know it, know it, know it, know it, that one sucks, know it, know it… Okay, this one I don’t know that well. Max difficulty?”

Scourge nodded. “Punch it.”

Sonic hit the button with his foot, and the screen went black. Everything lit back up again after a moment, and the loud dance music started to play over the speakers. As soon as arrows started flying up the screen, the legs of the two hedgehogs had become nothing but blue and green blurs. The arrows were going so fast Tails could barely see them, but given the amount of times the word ‘perfect!’ appeared on-screen, Sonic and Scourge apparently had no trouble making them out. The two’s movements were identical, completely in sync with one another, as was to be expected. They were both the same person, for crying out loud. As long as neither of them made a major mistake, they would probably stay in sync until the end.

Tails looked down at the Miles Electric in his hands, making sure its camera app stayed focused on the action. It was a shame it couldn’t record at a higher fps, because he would have loved to see this in slow motion. Their feet looked like red and black tornadoes, and they were both staring, unblinking, at the screens in front of them.

When they were about halfway through the song, things got a little… concerning. Sonic and Scourge were still neck and neck and deadly focused, but Tails was distracted by the smell of smoke. He looked up from the Miles Electric to see thick black smoke pouring out the backs of the machines. The buttons on the dance pads were flickering wildly, and the images on the screen were shaking. “Um, guys?” the fox said, slowly taking a step back. “I think you might be too good at this.”

“No time for compliments bud!” Sonic yelled at him over the music.

“No, seriously, you’re going too fast! The machines, they–”

Burst into flames. Both games burst into flames, and the two hedgehogs abruptly stopped as all the lights petered out. They quickly stumbled off of the dance pads and zipped to Tails’s side, all three of them staring at the machines.

“Well, that was fun while it lasted,” Sonic cringed, not knowing what to do other than watch the smoke pour out of his favorite game.

“Think we should run?” Scourge asked, not looking forward to receiving the blame for this.

Tails nodded. “Yeah, we should… probably go.”

“It’s not a big fire, someone else can handle it, come on!” Sonic yelped, leading them out and away from the arcade in a flash.

The worst part about the whole situation? Upon revealing Tails’s footage, they discovered the game ended in a tie.

  
  


ooo

  
  


“Ow.”

“I can’t believe this. Tails told you to wait.”

“And I ignored him. Pass me the aspirin.”

Sonic groaned melodramatically as he passed the bottle of painkillers over to Scourge, who sat next to him on the couch. Both hedgehogs were covered in bandages almost from head to toe. Fur was singed, limbs were bruised and battered, and they both ached all over. Taking down Eggman’s latest batch of robots didn’t go quite as well as they had planned. They may or may not have been directly on top of the biggest robot when it exploded, and they may or may not have caught fire a little bit. All in all, their injuries weren’t hospital-bad, but they were definitely lie-on-the-couch-and-watch-tv-all-day-bad. And of course, with two stubborn, aching hedgehogs in such close proximity, they were bound to pick on each other.

“This is all your fault,” Sonic grumbled as Scourge took some of the pills. “I’m beginning to think you enjoy looking like burnt grass.”

“Hey, yer the one with all the practice bein’ a hero,” Scourge scoffed. “Thought you were all about savin’ the day.”

“I did save the day. The city’s still standing and no one else got hurt. You were the one who had to jump in and be all flashy about it.”

“You’re flashy too, dickwad.”

“Yeah, but… Shut up!”

“Haaaa, you don’t have a good comeback–”

“Yeah, sorry I’m not on my a-game right now, I’m just concussed.”

“Oh, cry me a river.”

“Hope you drown in it.”

That caught Scourge off guard, and he actually let out a laugh. “Woah, captain edgy over here! Talk about savage.” Sonic merely glared at him in response. “Had no idea you got so pissy when you’re hurt.”

“I don’t like bein’ stuck in one place. Can’t move a lot if I’m hurt.”

The green hedgehog sighed. “Yeah. I’m used to spendin’ a lotta my time bein’ hurt an’ stuck in one place so… I get that.”

“Oh yeah, that’s basically what Zone Jail was like for you, right?”

“Yeeeep,” he groaned, tilting his head back so it bumped against the back of the couch. “I shouldn’t’ve gone overboard on that last robot. Fucked both of us over.”

“Yeah, but you also haven’t had a ton of practice fighting Eggman’s bots,” Sonic said. He attempted to shrug, but even that slight movement shot pain all through his arms and chest. “Besides, I’ve been burned worse.”

Scourge raised an eyeridge. “Chaos, really? ‘Cause right now, you’re more black than blue. You practically got grill marks on yer ass.”

“I’ve been in this business for a loooong time,” Sonic chuckled. “Let’s just say there was an unfortunate amount of lava involved, and leave it at that.”

“Fine. If you don’t wanna talk, I’ll ask Tails about it. Yo, T!” the green one shouted, struggling to lean forward and inch out of the couch. He hurt too much to make it very far, but he still made a show of it.

“Noooo!” Sonic wailed, refusing to follow him. His injured brain was currently protesting any and all movement, so he responsibly stayed put.

Scourge, meanwhile, had managed to push himself up out of the sofa, every movement painful. He took a few slow steps forward, calling Tails’s name out again as he cleared the coffee table.

And then he fell flat on his face.

He moaned loudly as Sonic tried not to howl too much, laughs exploding through his body. “Oh Chaos!” Sonic gasped for air, his chest immediately beginning to hurt from the strain of laughing. “Tails! Cleanup on aisle three!”

Scourge clenched his fists, still lying prone on the floor. “I hate you.”

“Haha, yeah, I hate you too.”

 


	11. Father's Day

It was a quiet day on Moebius. It was late June, only a few days before a certain trio’s 21st birthday. The sky was a solid, cloudy gray, blocking out the sun and sending a slight chill up everyone’s arms. An orange portal opened in the middle of a large cemetery, on the outskirts of Mobotropolis. Two hedgehogs stepped out, one blue and one green, before the portal silently closed.

“This is the place,” Scourge muttered, his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. His voice was low, and he was acting more reserved than usual. “Thanks for the lift, Z.”

“No prob,” the Zone Cop said, hiding his portal belt under his t-shirt. “You gonna be okay? You know you don’t have to do this.”

The green hedgehog shrugged. “I want to. S’bout time I paid the old man a visit.” He sniffed. “Wanna come back for me later? I might be here a while.”

“Yeah, just gimme a call. I’m gonna wander around a bit,” Zonic said, lifting his arms up and crossing them behind his head. “I’ve been stuck on No Zone for a while. It’s nice to be somewhere with grass every now and then,” he smirked, turning away.

He walked off, leaving Scourge alone in front of an impressively large tombstone. Scourge glared at the thing, unable to glare at the person buried beneath it. He crossed his arms sourly. “I’d say happy Father’s Day, but you don’t deserve it,” he grunted towards the stone.

The stone didn’t reply. Naturally. It only said the same thing it always said:  _ Here lies Jules Hedgehog. Governor. Husband. Father. Seeker of Peace.  _ It had a picture of his face, which Scourge tried not to focus on, and the dates of his birth and death. Death via bullet through the skull, of course.

“I shouldn’t even be here. I still hate your guts. You’re still in my fuckin’ nightmares. You know how glad I am that you’re gone?” the hedgehog growled, eyes lingering on the death date.  _ He’d _ done that. Just thinking about it made his stomach do loop-de-loops. He’d put the bullet through his head. Through his  _ father’s _ head. He orphaned himself. As much as Scourge hated his old man… His fists clenched, and his eyes fell to half mast. “I shouldn’t have killed you,” he gritted out, his voice so low it sounded hoarse. “I hate you with everything I got, but I shouldn’t’ve killed you.”

He sighed. A gust of wind crawled through the graveyard, rustling tall grass that needed to be cut. Looked like people on Moebius had better things to do than tend to cemeteries. They were probably still rebuilding after the calamity that was “King Scourge.” It was just as well. The hedgehog didn’t want to see anyone else right now.

“You know you’re the only person I’ve ever killed? Only guy I had a direct hand in killing, and it was my dad. How shitty is that?” He almost laughed, except he felt sick to his stomach. “You were an asshole. A huge one. But... so was I, and I got better. Kinda. So… fuck.”

Scourge slowly sank down to the ground, something tickling at the back of his throat. He coughed to make it go away. He sat in the tall grass, the tall, thin blades itching against his chest. He ran his thumb over the thick scars there, feeling the rough texture of the raised skin. “I changed a hell of a lot since then. And that’s what sucks. Maybe you could’a changed too. Probably not. I didn’t even consider tryin’ the hero thing until I hit rock fuckin’ bottom. You had it easy yer whole life. You were completely content being a dick to mom an’ completely ignoring me. So somehow, I doubt you would’ve ever changed. You’d just be an asshole til’ you died, bitter and alone.”

He closed his eyes as the tickle in his throat came back. “I’m sorry,” he choked out, almost a whisper. “I shouldn’t’ve killed you. You were an asshole, and maybe you deserved to die, but it wasn’t my choice to make. But I did it, and I can’t undo it or take it back. I just have to live with it. Live with the fact that I killed you, I set myself down this shitty path that took me, like, ten years to get off of. It took me  _ that _ long to get to an okay place. Fuckin’ hell…”

He sat there for a while, not saying anything. He wasn’t sure how long it was, probably close to an hour. He didn’t know what to say. Not like anyone besides him would hear. His dad was dead, after all. But his mouth couldn’t form any words. His jumbled thoughts couldn’t be translated into a proper sentence. So he sat there, too uncomfortable to move, thoughts too heavy to let out into the crisp air.

Scourge heard footsteps crunching through the tall grass. His ears flicked upward, and he turned his head to look behind him. Zonic was walking up the hill, a white paper bag in one hand and a six-pack of beers in the other.

“You’ve been out here for a while,” the blue hedgehog said as he approached. He sat down next to Scourge, setting the beers down between them. “So I got snacks. Hope you like fast food.” He crossed his legs as he pulled paper-wrapped cheeseburgers out of the bag.

Scourge took one, not unwrapping it yet. “Is this really the place for a picnic?”

Zonic shrugged one shoulder. “We can always move, if you want. Didn’t know if you wanted to stick around here or not.”

“I… I dunno. I don’t feel like I’ve said enough.” The green one pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his head on them. “But I don’t know what else to say.”

“Well,” Zonic took a bite of his burger, “ish kinda hard, ‘cush you hate ‘im.” He swallowed. “Usually you visit a grave because you miss someone, but…”

“Yeah. I don’t miss him at all,” Scourge sighed. He grabbed one of the beers and popped it open. “I just… feel… guilty, I guess.” He lifted the beverage to his lips, taking just a small sip. His stomach was still in knots, his whole abdomen feeling tight. He should probably take it easy with food and drink for the time being. “No amount of apologizing or sitting at his stupid grave will make me feel better about it. I thought it might, but…”

The Zone Cop’s expression fell, his shoulders drooping just a bit. “I know how you feel,” he said softly, pulling his burger away from his mouth. “You made a mistake. You wish you hadn’t, you wish you could just go back and make sure it never happened. No amount of ‘I’m sorry’ will ever make up for it.”

Scourge knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t just guessing here. He was talking from experience. “Yeah? What’d you do?”

Zonic was silent. Neither of them moved. Scourge realized that question might’ve been too personal, but Z answered. “I dragged my brother into a battle that wasn’t his. It didn’t end well.”

Scourge’s blue eyes wavered, having a hard time focusing on Zonic’s face. He drifted down to the cop’s hands, seeing his exposed wrist tattoo. Orange and blue stripes.

_ Dammit, _ Scourge thought, averting his eyes  _ again _ and staring at the six-pack, currently a five-pack. After a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed another one of the cans and offered it to Zonic. “A toast. To being fuckups.”

The No Zoner gave a slight grin as he accepted the can, popping the top open. “To being fuckups.” They clinked the two cans together, each taking a drink.

A small gap in the cloudy sky let a bit of light through, warming and casting shadows on the cemetery and its visitors. The breeze that blew slowly through didn’t feel quite so chilly, and Scourge didn’t feel quite so bad anymore. He took another sip.

_ Then again, _ he thought,  _ that could just be the beer talking. _

 


	12. Mini-Chapter: Touch Starved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in present tense because I felt like it. Not like this story is linear anyway lol

Scourge was never one for hugs. It makes sense, he figures, since he never had any friends or loved ones until recently. But still, it bears repeating: he probably hasn’t been hugged since he was a child. No pats on the back, no side hugs or half hugs or anything of the sort. Well, there was that one big group hug after they defeated the Time Eater and sent the kids home, the one where he bawled like a baby, but that was a highly emotional time. He figures it’s just a fluke.

But nope. No, he’s playing video games with Amy at her place, some co-op thing, and they beat a level they’ve been stuck on for 45 minutes. Amy freaks out, screams a little, wraps her arms around his chest, and he can feel the shivers run up his spine like a cold front. He has a brief moment of panic– _ she’s hugging me, what is with the butterflies in my stomach, I’m not into her so why does this feel so good _ –and then it’s over, Amy’s hands are back on her controller and she’s picking the next level.

He lets out a breath that he didn’t even realize he was holding and tries to focus back on the game, but he can still feel a tremor in his ribs. It’s a while before it passes. He’s almost sad that they don’t get stuck on a level like that again.

Scourge doesn’t know what to think of that hug. Chalks it up to excitement and relief at finally beating that damn game. He manages to forget about it, at least until Sonic pesters him into going to the workshop for a movie night a week later. Tails is curled up in an armchair, Sonic is sitting on the arm of the couch like a weirdo, and Zonic and Scourge are sitting on the couch itself, close to one another so they can easily bring up memes on their phones to silently share.

While Scourge is ignoring the movie (something about dinosaurs) and scrolling through his phone, Zonic leans into him to show him a short video. And it happens again. The world slows down, he feels that contact, and he just. Melts. He doesn’t mean to, but he sinks in his seat, leans right back into Zonic, and wonders once again what the fuck is wrong with him. Is he going nuts? He never used to want people to get all touchy-feely with him. First Amy, and now Z? The hell?

“You good?” Zonic asks when Scourge slumps in his seat, completely oblivious to the electricity engulfing Scourge’s whole side. The green hedgehog nods.

“Yeah, just–” Scourge starts, and then he clears his throat because dear Chaos that was a hell of a voice crack– “Just gettin’ comfy.” Ugh, this is embarrassing. He hates when people touch him! Why’s he getting all melty?

He sends Zonic a text once they both go back to watching the movie, because he’ll be damned if he mentions this out loud. But Chaos, he needs answers.

Scourge: hey dont freak out but like

Scourge: when u started leanin on me just now?? it felt… good? and i thought i didnt like people touchin me but

Scourge: idk same thing happened with ames last week, she hugged me and it felt like my body did a loop de loop

Zonic: ?? Maybe youre changing your mind abt that stuff

Scourge: maybe??? idfk all i know is that i got the shivers. like the good kind. sorry this is probably weird as FUUUUUCK

Zonic: Nah man u just sound touch starved to me

Scourge: ??? explain

Zonic: Your body isnt getting enough friendly touch. U know, hugs and stuff

Scourge: thats a thing that can happen?? ?

Zonic: Yea

Scourge: no wonder it feels so fuckin nice, ive been goin thru a hug drought

Scourge: cept for u nerds and fiona? i think the last hug i got was from my mom before she croaked

Scourge: like, when i was 7

Zonic: Oh yikes

Zonic: Dont worry man Im on the case. Its leaning time

Just then Zonic leans all the way into Scourge’s side, head on shoulder and arm on arm. The weight leaves a warm feeling in Scourge’s chest, and he thinks that maybe Zonic has a point. What else would that feeling be, the warmth of friendship?? No, that sounds dumb. Way dumber than “touch starved.” At least he has something to look up when he goes home later.

Scourge: ty

Scourge: for this. and also for tellin me that this is kinda normal

Zonic: Np, happens to all of us. Chaos knows its happened to me

Zonic: Now shut up, some of us actually care what happens in this movie

Scourge: the dinosaur dies at the end, ive already seen it :P

Zonic gasps. “Asshole!” he cries out, giving Scourge a harsh shove with his elbow. Sonic and Tails look at them, see them both smiling, and don’t ask. Once he’s done, Zonic leans back into Scourge’s side, and Scourge proceeds to melt into a puddle in the corner of the couch.

The movie ends and the dinosaur doesn’t even die. Zonic swears vengeance for the cruelty he’s been put through at the hands of these lies. Scourge is too busy smiling to care.

 


End file.
